Behind the ScenesThe Mentors
by Clover80
Summary: Ever wonder what happened to the mentors during the games? A typical Hunger Games from their point of view. Multiple characters-Woof, Wiress, Beetee, Finnick, everyone is here! Read and review please! Disclaimer: I own nothing The Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins.
1. Chapter 1 Wiress

Wiress

5, 4,3,2,1, The gong sounds and Moira's running, but she's running the wrong way. I told her to run away from the bloodbath, not towards it! She's a determined girl, but I don't think she'll survive the initial hell of the games. She reaches down and snatches up a backpack and a bag of beef jerky and then turns and runs in the other direction towards a dense forest that fills up most of the arena. She's safe for now.


	2. Chapter 2 Beetee

Beetee

Garth is frozen, standing there on his plate frozen, a look of panic in his eyes. This kids is used to working with computers, running and fighting are not things he does particularly well. Not at all. "Move damnit!" I say and pound my fist into the counter in front of my mentor screen. Wiress jumps and instantly raises an arm to deflect whatever blow might be coming, then realizes there is nothing coming, that it's only me, and turns back to her screen. Left over reflex of a past tribute. I glance up-her tribute has snagged a backpack and some meat and is running like a bat out of hell for the trees. Good for her. Girl's got some common sense. Unlike the boy I mentored who has still not left his plate and is frantically whipping his head back and forth trying to tell which direction he should run in. We're 30 seconds into the bloodbath and he hasn't moved. Kid's a freaking genius when it comes to machines but can't think himself out of danger. Finally he jumps off his plate and takes off running across the top half of the circle around the cornucopia towards the woods. "Thank God!" I think and then see that he has stopped part of the way across, distracted by something. He turns and runs towards something shiny laying in the grass about 20 feet away from him. Maybe it's wire or something he can put to good use. But no, as he gets closer I see that it's only foil packaging, dried fruit or crackers most likely. I can see the disappointment cross his face a second before an arrow pierces his chest and he drops to the ground. Wiress reaches over and grabs my hand. "Shit!" I yell and pound on the counter again. God damn kid died for a pack of crackers. I look over at Wiress.

"What a…" and she trails off.

"Waste." I finish her sentence for her. What a hell of a waste. There is cheering coming from the booths on either side of ours. Districts 2 and 4, both career districts and their tributes are alive and well and busy slaughtering the others. In fact, as I look at the large screen inside our booth which is over top of our smaller individual tribute screens I see that the tribute with the bow and arrows is the girl from 4. I get up and walk into the booth next door where Finnick Odair and Mags are sitting, their eyes glued to the screen. Annie Cresta is sitting on the padded bench along the wall behind them. They all look up when I come in and Mags reaches out to me and mumbles something that is most likely an apology. Her tribute killed mine.

"Sorry Beetee," Finnick says, glancing away from the screen for a few seconds. I just nod and slump down next to Annie.

"Just don't cheer about it where I can hear ok Odair? I say.

He nods and says "Sure, but that's now why, YES!." I see his skinny little 13 year old tribute grabbing a backpack and a spear and running through a maze of fighting tributes to the woods, neatly dodging a sword wielded by the District 10 boy who is at least 3 times his size. Kid has spunk, I have to give him that. Reminds me of Finnick the year he won his games. Hell, Finnick's still just a kid himself for the most part. Good for him! I say to no one in particular. I get up to leave and pat Annie on the shoulder on my way out. She looks up at me with eyes that are frighteningly vacant.

"Hey Beetee," she whispers.

"Hey Annie," I say. Then she turns her eyes back to the wall and continues to stare at nothing. Good lord, she didn't even know I was there.


	3. Chapter 3 Finnick

Finnick

This kid is awesome. He's skinny, 13, and has a big mouth that gets him in trouble a little too often but that's part of why I like him. He's a fisherman's kid from the docks, his family lives in a cottage not too far from where my family used to live. He has a little brother and sister still years too young for the reaping and a sweet mother. His dad has a temper, but hey, so does this kid. He told me he is in trouble all the time in school for things he didn't do and for fighting, and it's put a big chip on his shoulder. Consequently that temper has a hair trigger if he thinks you're making fun of him. His name is Dav and I think, I hope, that maybe, just maybe this kid has the kind of luck, more than enough brains, and just enough tenacity to make it through these games. It would be nice to be able to bring a tribute home this year. But, at the same time, this kid is handsome, and I know what the capitol will do to him. I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to just shut his mouth and do what he's told by Snow and then that nice family he's a part of back home will be gone and the kid will be forever ruined. He reminds me too much of myself-and so, I did something I shouldn't have. I told him the truth about what happens to the victors when the games are over. I told him that the capitol would own him. That if he didn't want to be sold to the highest bidder that he had better think of some other way to help Snow by the time he gets out of the arena. Sure, they'll leave him alone for a few years since he's so young, but not forever. I told him he has to decide if he wants to live or die in there and which is better for him. Looks like he wants to live because he just ducked under a sword swung by one of this year's biggest tributes and is running like hell out of the bloodbath and into the woods.


	4. Chapter 4 Mags

Mags

I hate that Meranda shot Beetee's boy. I really, really do. Girl won't admit it but she's just killed someone for the first time and the emotions running through her head and heart are strong enough to make her want to curl up in a ball and wail. Unlike Districts 1 and 2 we don't force our tributes to kill before they are in the arena so that they are hardened. We just teach them to defend themselves. Nothing wrong with that. We may be the weakest of the Career districts or whatever they call us now but training a kid to kill is wrong. Training a kid to know how to fight off someone trying to kill you, that's not wrong. Although that boy of Beetee's wasn't trying to kill Meranda; but she's in with the Career Pack and she has to prove that she can kill like the rest of them or she's dead today. In my games I didn't have to kill anyone who didn't attack me first, at least I felt it was fair. Stays with you though, part of you never leaves the hell of the arena. Don't want to think about that…on the screen Meranda has run back into the fray and is fighting off a girl from 9. Meranda shoves her down and the girl from District 2 stabs her, looking triumphant. The girls look at each other, smirk, and turn around looking for the next kid to come at them. They stand back to back, one throwing knives and one shooting down kids with arrows. There's a difference though. The girl from Two throws knives at kids who aren't even coming near her, just to kill. Meranda only shoots at someone charging at her or her allies. She's not totally a cold hearted killer. But she is more of a killer than any child should have to be.


	5. Chapter 5 Lyme

Disclaimer: I own nothing. The Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins.

…

Lyme

Enobaria and I are on our feet cheering! Our girl tribute Tansy is taking out kids right and left and our male tribute has made 3 kills and is about to make another, as soon as he gets rid of that big kid from 10. They both have swords, well, more like machetes and are hacking away at one another but neither has managed to land a blow on their opponent. "Come on Naylor, get him!" I yell. I look up at Enobaria's screen and see Tansy fighting back to back with the girl from four. Well, Tansy's just killing anything that moves and 4 girl is shooting anything charging her or the career pack. The girl from 8 falls to one of Tansy's knives.

"All right girl! Kill em! Show them how it's done!" I'm so excited by Tansy that I had stopped paying attention to Naylor, I was sure he would win the fight. Enobaria grabs my hand, jolting me out of my reverie.

"Lyme, he's hit!" she says urgently. I whip my eyes back to my screen in time to see the giant from 10 shove his sword through Naylor's heart. The ten kid had gotten a hit on Naylor's leg, killing him when he went down. Shit. I mentored a bloodbath.


	6. Chapter 6 Enobaria

Disclaimer: I own nothing. The Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins.

…..

Enobaria

Lyme is furious. Her tribute, Naylor just died. Mine is still alive. Tansy is a vicious girl, and doesn't hesitate to take out competitors right and left. I told her to stay out of close combat at the cornucopia, that the risk of someone taking you out from the rear was too big. She listened and went for knives instead of a sword or mace. She and the district four girl Meranda I think her name is, have killed enough tributes for the moment, no one is running anywhere near them now, not wanting to be in range of their weapons. They break apart and Tansy sees that Naylor has gone down. The district 10 boy has made it past the plates and is sprinting for the woods that surround them. They aren't just woods though, the kids don't know that but they aren't. The mentors get to see a birds eye view of the arena fifteen minutes before the kids are in. The forest is a mishmash of trees, pine, oak, even Cyprus and redwood, huge trees that tower over their smaller counterparts. There's a swamp on the left side full of old Cyprus trees and hanging moss and a foggy, strange, dark tangle of trees on the right that's like something out of an old story, fairy tales they were called.

The bloodbath is almost over and the other tributes have either run into the forest or lie dead in front of it. Tansy kneels beside Naylor and closes his eyes. "Don't cry," I think. "I can't get any sponsors for a killer who cries. That's not what we're selling." She doesn't disappoint me though, she clenches her jaw, squares her shoulders, and gets up and walks over to the supply pile that the other kids in the Career pack are sorting through. Good, my story had worked. The night before the games I told Tansy about a long dead queen I read about years ago. Her husband had her beheaded for adultery, though the author of the book seemed to think she was not guilty. She did not cry or beg at her execution. She showed no fear and apparently an incredible amount of grace. I told Tansy to be like her. To have the steel spine of a queen on the scaffold, that no matter what she could not cry or beg for her life. She won't let me down. She had better not tell anybody I read books either.


	7. Chapter 7 Johanna

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my ideas. The Hunger Games and the characters belong to Suzanne Collins.

Johanna

Whoo! Both of District 7's tributes are out of the bloodbath! Blight and I exchange high fives and continue to celebrate the fact that for once neither of our tributes died at the cornucopia. Their names are Salvia and Spruce. Corny names from our tree loving district but great kids. Smart kids. Spruce, the boy ran towards the cornucopia when the gong sounded. Salvia ran to her left, towards Spruce who was only three plates away. She managed to grab a loaf of bread, a blanket, and a knife. He however got a backpack, which is great. They always have a water container in them at least and some iodine for purifying it. They met up and got the heck out of there. Now they're running through the trees at top speed and I do mean running through the actual trees. They climbed a huge cypress and are jumping from tree to tree. There are so many different kinds, but they all have huge trees so the branches are nice and thick if you can get up the trunks. They'll make it through today at least. That's something.


	8. Chapter 8 Gloss

Gloss

Both of the District One tributes are alive so Cashmere and I can relax a little. I knew they would be fine but mentors are always nervous about the bloodbath. I can hear Lyme cursing and throwing something in her booth next door because the boy from her district just got killed off by the kid from 10 who got away. I hear the door closest to me across the semicircle slam. One or both of Haymitch's tributes must have died too. I'm surprised he's sober enough to notice. Well, he won't stay sober now that one of his is dead. Our door opens and Cash and I look up to see Woof, the old man from District 8 standing in front of us. He's senile as anything and probably has no idea where he is in terms of booths or who we are. "Hi Woof," I say in greeting. "What's going on?"

"Give me a drink you son of a bitch!" he answers.

Like I thought, doesn't know where he is. But if he wants a drink I'll take him to Haymitch. He can drink himself to death in 12's booth. "Come on Woof, let's go get you that drink I say putting my arm around him. Cashmere looks up at me and wrinkles her nose. She's so cold and heartless. He's just an old man, she doesn't need to sneer at him. She'll be old one day and we'll see how sane she is when her mind finally snaps from all the nightmares that victors are blessed with. But she's all I've got. Our parents don't "understand" us anymore. They say that we are too quiet and "intense." Yeah, well go into an arena and be hunted and have to kill a bunch of people to come home and let's see if you are intense. Consequently they didn't move to Victor's village with us. "I'm going to take him out to Haymitch," I say to Cashmere. Want to go watch the big screen? Levi and Shine are fine."

"Sure" she says and follows me out the door.


	9. Chapter 9 Cecelia

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my ideas. The Hunger Games are owned by Suzanne Collins

….

Cecelia

I have to get a hold on myself and stop crying. I have to go see where Woof wandered off to after our tributes died. Both of them are dead. Gavin found himself on the wrong end of a spear held by the District 1 boy and Carys got a knife to the back courtesy of District 2. They were both only 15. I have three kids too and all I could see the whole week since The Reaping were my kid's faces on my two tributes. As a mother every child that is hurt or killed suddenly has your child's face and your heart breaks for their parents even more than it did before. I wipe my face and turn off our monitors and open the door. I look up to see Woof being led across the room by Gloss, the District 1 mentor. His tribute just killed mine. He sees my face and looks down.

"Sorry Cecelia," he mumbles. "You know how it is." He's right I do know. There's nothing new here. The Careers are always the strongest and always have the biggest kill list on the first day. They are trained for this day from the time they are toddlers. Taught how honorable it is to be in the games. How honorable it is to kill.

"Let's not talk about it Gloss. Thanks for bringing Woof back from wherever he went."

"He was in our booth, he wants a drink and he called me a son of a bitch," Gloss answers, smiling a little. This kid really isn't so cold and heartless once you get to know him. He's just a 19 year old kid. A kid who's killed like 8 people. His sister is typical career though, a cold, hard, bitch. She stalks past me without a word and sits in a chair with her arms wrapped around her knees ignoring Haymitch and staring at the big screen that shows all of the camera angles showing tributes in the arena plus what the rest of Panem is seeing on their TVs. The door to District 2's booth slams open and Lyme stalks down to the District 10 booth.

"Oh shit!" Haymtich hoots, laughing from where he's sprawled on a sofa. Enobaria laughs from the doorway of their booth. Brutus, who is also District 2 but who was not in the booth but in the common area drinking with Chaff looks up, grunts, and goes back to his drink. Lyme throws open the door of District 10's booth.

"Hoster! Your boy just killed mine! Do you know what that means?" she yells.

"That you mentored a loser this year?" Hoster answers calmly with that funny drawl the livestock district has. "You know District 10 used to be called Texas and their motto was "Don't mess with Texas." Maybe we should make ours "Don't mess with District 10," he says slipping his thumbs through his belt loops.

"That's not funny Hoster!" Lyme says, snarling.

"Weren't meant to be,"he says pushing past her into the common room. He, like Haymitch has no one to help him mentor as District 10 has not had a winner since him and his mentor is long dead. Lyme is fuming and I can tell she wants to grab him and beat his face to a bloody pulp. Woof unintentionally breaks the tension by yelling at Gloss-

"Where's my drink you son of a bitch?"

Lyme starts to laugh and then she is suddenly crying, slumping down on the floor in the doorway of the district 10 booth. She gets up and pours two glasses of bourbon and hands one to Woof. "Here's your drink you son of a bitch," she says. Here's to the dead" and rasies her glass in the air. Haymitch, Chaff, Brutus and Woof all raise their glasses too.

"To the dead," Haymitch says and they down their drinks. Maybe Woof knows what's going on after all.


	10. Chapter 10 Woof

Disclaimer: I own nothing buy my ideas. _The Hunger Games_ belongs to Suzanne Collins

…

Woof

Shit. The Hunger Games are on TV again. Cecelia is here too. Look, that boy and girl I saw last week are on the TV. Guess they got reaped, too bad for them. I hate the Hunger Games. I won them once, lost my best friend in them too. Jory was her name. I miss her…

I want a drink. People in the next room are drinking, where's mine? Look, there's that Haymitch kid, who said he was old enough to drink? Ole one hand from 11 is here too. "Where's my drink you bastards? " I ask, "I want one!"

They laugh and gesture to the right, "Over there Woof," One hand says. Heh. One of these doors must be to the bar. I walk over and throw one open. Two kids watching the damn games. What the hell? They need to be gettin me a drink! The boy turns around and says hi, asks me what's goin on..kinda stupid question for a barkeep watching TV.

"Where's my drink you son of a bitch?" I ask him. He gets up and tells the girl he's going to take me back to that Haymitch kid. Haymitch? I don't want him, I want a drink! All of a sudden the door next to me flys open and a really BIG woman runs out fightin mad. She throws open a door across the room and yells something about some kids killin. Well what did she think was happening? Ain't they watchin the Hunger Games? Some guy wearing a ten gallon hat and boots comes strollin out of the room. Hey, I know him, that's Hoster. I like Hoster. He won his games because he was smart and good with one of those lasso things, a rope with a loop in it. Caught tributes he did and stabbed em dead. Now that big woman is crying. Oh, there's Cecelia. I still want my drink. Damn barkeep kid hasn't gotten me one yet.

"Where's my drink you son of a bitch?" I ask him. Big woman hands me one instead.

She raises her glass and says "To the dead."

Who's dead? Is it someone we know?

"To the dead," Haymitch says.

Who died? Hell, I don't know, but I raise my glass anyway and drink with the rest of them.


	11. Chapter 11 Chaff

Disclaimer: I own nothing buy my ideas. Suzanne Collins owns The Hunger Games.

…..

Chaff

I'm glad Woof's here, at least he brings some levity with him. I mean Lyme is crying, crying! Really? Then Woof yells at Gloss to get him a drink and calls him an s-o-b. Woof's so old he's got hair growing out of his ears in white tufts, but he's yelling and calling someone a son of a bitch! Gotta admit, it's pretty funny. Gloss laughs, pats him on the arm. I notice his ice queen sister is ignoring all of us and is curled up in a chair watching the big screen. My girl tribute is already dead. Seeder's still in our booth watching the boy and trying to make peace with the idea that Daisy died. She's got a mess of brothers and sisters back home that are gonna be missin her somethin awful. She was only 12. There ain't no makin peace with that. Rye is still alive though. He's wiry and strong that one. He'll do ok for a while. District 7's door opens and Johanna and Blight come out looking proud of themselves.

"Both of ours are alive!" says Blight. "Did you see that?"

"Good for you two," Cecelia says back. Johanna hands Blight a drink.

"What were you guys toasting?" she asks.

"The dead," I tell her.

"Who's died?" she asks, quieter now.

"Both of mine," answers Cecelia.

"My boy," snarls Lyme, glaring at Hoster.

"Daisy," I say.

"Micah," says Haymitch.

"Petula," Hoster says, looking at the ground.

"Hoster, you didn't say she died," I spit out.

"Ya'll didn't ask," he says.

District 6's booth opens and Sonia and Beal come out obviously already high. We all turn to look at them. "One dead," Sonia whispers. They both collapse onto a loveseat in the corner of the room. Morphlings. I look at the big screen and try and figure out which one of their tributes is still alive. Looks like the boy. Good luck to him because with these two for mentors he won't be getting any sponsors.

"Where are Nuts and Volts?" Johanna asks.

"Still in their booth." Haymitch slurs out.

The door to the District 4 booth opens and Mags totters out and pushes a button that calls up a cup of tea. She is smiling so her tributes must still be alive. Finnick bounds out of the room behind her grinning from ear to ear..

"Did you see that kid? Did you? He got a spear! He ducked 10's sword and he's in the trees!" Finnick says excitedly.

"He's dead meat," says Enobaria from her doorway.

"Shut up Enobaria," Finnick replies.

"Why don't you come over here and make me," she says.

"Because then I'd have to knock those pretty pointy teeth of yours out vampire!"

"What's a vampire?" asks Gloss. Mags says something none of us understands but Finnick and Cecelia. He looks at her.

"Huh?" Gloss says.

"She said that vampires are blood sucking undead people with pointy teeth. Sunlight killed them in the stories from the old days." I look up at the voice. Seeder has finally decided to come out. She understands Mags too.

"I know what a vampire is old woman," Enobaria growls.

"How?" asks Finnick. "Read a book lately?"

"You're asking for it Odair," she warns and walks over and sits down in one of the padded chairs around the table where we eat. She puts her feet in another and twirls a steak knife through her fingers.

"Enough," says Seeder. No one dares to contradict her. She looks at Finnick. "Where's Annie?" she asks.

"Back upstairs," Finnick replies.

It's too serious in here. I've got to do something to lighten the mood. "Hey," I yell," who wants to do shots off my stump?"

"Me!" shrieks Johanna and everyone laughs. Good. People are laughing. Laughing is good. Laughing means life and there is way too much death in this room right now.


	12. Chapter 12 Seeder

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my ideas. Suzanne Collins owns The Hunger Games.

…

Seeder

Great. Everyone is lining up to do shots off of Chaff's stump. I don't drink or act like an idiot so I go the door of District 3's booth and knock. Beetee answers. "Coming out?" I ask.

"Might as well," he says. "Wiress, let's go sit with the others, Moira's safe for now. Wiress comes out and I put my arms around them both.

"Moira's alive?" I ask. Wiress smiles and nods.

"Garth's not," Beetee says. "Girl from four shot him."

"Sorry Beetee," I say and squeeze his shoulder.

"Me too," he replies.

"Oh look, Nuts and Voltz!" Cashmere says as we walk into the middle of the room.

"Hush Cashmere!" I'm not afraid to scold her. Everyone thinks she is an unfeeling bitch, but I know that it's just how she deals with her pain, with having to mentor every year. She tunes out and becomes bitter. "There's no need to be rude."

I see Wiress looking at her with an angry glint in her eyes. Cashmere had better watch out, she might end up getting electrocuted or poisoned one day. Stable is not the word I would use to describe Wiress.

I look around the room. Districts One, Two, Three, Four, Six, Eight, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve. Where are Five and Nine? I look up at the big screen and see that all four of their tributes are dead. I'm thinking about knocking on their doors when Skye and Gaia come trudging out of their booth. Gaia is in her 50s, she won her games about 8 years after mine. Skye was her only victorious tribute and he's only 27. Wiress shuffles over to them and takes their hands. Mags does the same. No one speaks, they don't have to. There's nothing to say. I'm sorry doesn't really cut it. I walk over and embrace both of them, one after the other. The room gets quiet as they walk in. Even Johanna, who had been licking salt off of Chaff's stump with a shot of tequila in her hand sits up and takes notice. From where he lays on the couch Haymitch kisses the three middle fingers on his left hand, and raises them into the air. It's a gesture used at funerals in District 12 that means goodbye. A gesture of respect. It's his silent salute to the dead tributes. Others raise their drinking glasses in another silent toast.

From the loveseat in the corner Sonia slowly says "They're floating in the blue now, the blue…the blue is peace."

"Yeah," Skye says. "They're at peace now." I wonder if Sonia picked up on the sarcasm in his voice or if the morphling she shot herself up with drowns out that too.

The dead may be at peace but I know that tonight peace will not come easily for any of us, if it ever comes at all. Peace. I try and bring it to all of us, it's what I can do for them, all I can do. But it still hurts.

Finally the door to district 5's booth opens and Dahla and Gord come out. They are both in their forties and won their games two years apart. Gord first, and then Dahla. Gord won by building a lightning rod and setting it up near the career camp during a storm as they slept. Then he climbed a tree. A sponsor had sent him rubber boots and gloves so when the lightning struck he was insulated while everyone on the wet ground was electrocuted. His arena was an old oil field and he found plenty of metal scraps with which to construct his deadly creation. Sort of like what Beetee did. Dahla lured tributes into some sort of electrical snare she constructed using a wire that was touching the edge of the force field. She used Haymitch's Beetee's and Gord's tricks against the others. Her family was dead before she even got home. The Capitol doesn't like it when you use it's own weapons against it. Too bad Gord didn't warn her first. A new round of drinks is passed around, more glasses raised and dinner is brought out by the Avoxes. We mentors have a tradition that on the first night of the games, after the bloodbath deaths are totaled up we all sit down to eat together. Even Annie comes down for the first meal. Though some of us don't want to admit it, we find peace with each other. It's not a quiet dinner table, but it's a table full of people who understand what the others have been through. For one night at least it's a table full of friends.


	13. Chapter 13 Cashmere

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my ideas. Suzanne Collins owns The Hunger Games.

….

Cashmere

I hate the first meal tradition. I don't want to eat after he bloodbath. It's strange to me because after the bloodbath in my own games I was starving. Half of these lunatics are drunk or high anyway. The other half are just too serious to be any fun to talk to. Some, like Enobaria, are just psychotic. I hate her pointy teeth. I hate the way they look when she smiles and she knows that, so she does it a lot and makes sure that it's when I'm watching. I sit between Seeder and Gloss and stare at the wall instead of looking around the table and engaging in conversation. On one side of me Gloss is chattering away to Brutus and on the other Seeder is chiding me for not eating and puts food on my plate since I don't. Seeder. She tries so hard to mother us all. I wonder if she has children or grandchildren back home. We don't talk much about our families because we don't want the Capitol listening in on what we're saying. The less they know about our loved ones the better. I know that all of these people think I am an icy, frigid, bitch with no heart, even Gloss thinks that sometimes. I can tell by the way he looks at me. Really, just tuning out, going away inside, it's the only way I can deal with life once the Games start. I know that Snow will sell me at least a dozen times if not more while I am here and that my tributes may very well die. At least one of them will. Somebody brushes against me as they are walking to their chair. Without thinking I jump up and whip around, grabbing the person's arm. It's just Cecelia and when I see that I let go of her immediately. I can't help it, I don't want to be touched by anyone. Not after the arena and not after what Snow has put me through since I won the games. Being whored out doesn't exactly make you love being around people, you know? Thankfully, having been through the same thing I know Cecelia understands. She has made a life for herself and now that she has kids President Snow doesn't sell her body for money. I don't want to have kids, I don't even want anyone near me, much less a husband to share my bed. Having kids is cruel anyway if you think about it, as a victor I know with certainty that my kids would be very tempting to the Capitol. Who better to throw into the arena than the children of a victor? People in the Capitol just love to watch victor's children die in the arena. They like it better if they live and create a legacy but they like it when they die too. Like I need to provide the Capitol with anymore entertainment. They already have me and my brother, I'm not providing them with another piece of my family


	14. Chapter 14 Sonia Female Morphling

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my ideas. Suzanne Collins owns The Hunger Games.

…..

Sonia

People think that because Beale and I use morphling that we don't know what's going on around us. That's not really true at all. We know. It's just that everything has a nice hum to it. When you first take it all of your emotions are much more intense. The slightest thing can have you in tears. But after a few minutes a nice, peaceful sensation takes hold of you. You begin to relax and even though bad things are happening you are numb to them. Your head buzzes, or hums, but it's a nice hum. Colors are brighter. Noises are more intense. That part is bothersome when too many people are around because even when they whisper they sound SO LOUD that you might want to go over and RIP THROATS OUT! Intense emotions and irritability when you are coming down too. Then the NOISE really gets to you. The most unpleasant part is the sweating, you sweat buckets for no reason. Walk up the stairs and you'll be dripping by the time you reach the top. But for now Beal and I are sitting at first meal together, with tiny earplugs stuffed into our ears so that everything is muffled and that pleasant hum is the only thing we hear. The earplugs almost blocked out Julia's screams as she was dying in the bloodbath, but not quite. When she was screaming we put our hands over our ears, closed our eyes, cried and tried to let the humming take over our minds. Soon she was quiet and we were too numb for tears. We came out of the booth then and sat on the love seat. It was red, so bright next to the white sofas I noticed. Now we're eating and it looks like Brutus and Lyme are arguing and Haymitch and Chaff are laughing, but all I can hear is a nice hummmmmmmmm…..That hum is all I have left.

I used to have a husband and two children and for a while I was happy. But after my second child, my son, my world got so dark. Even darker than the days and weeks after I came home from the arena. I felt nothing. Empty, dark, silent. I didn't' care if I got up in the morning. I didn't care if I moved off of the couch and I hated my husband for no reason other than the fact that he existed. I hated the children too. They cried and wanted my attention and wanted me to be happy to see them and it was just so hard! I wasn't happy to see them! I didn't care if I saw them I wanted to be left alone, alone in the dark. That's when Beal brought me the morphling.

Suddenly my world had color again. I felt better, soothed, happy. But it only lasted so long. My children grew to dread my quick temper and I hated how much noise they made. My husband got tired of hearing me scream at them and the fact that I wanted to be left alone to float through life on a cloud of morphling. I was happy inside my cloud, alone. Eventually we had nothing left to talk about and I think in the end we stopped talking at all. I went out one day and came home to an empty house. They moved across town. I pay for their house and their food and whatever else they need. I have more than enough money. I don't see them very often. Who wants a crazy, haunted, morphling addicted Hunger Games victor for a wife? Who wants that for a mother? Nobody. I understand, I don't want to be around me either sometimes. But sometimes I don't care. Is that wrong, that I don't care that they're gone? I have Beal and he understands me and mostly I just want to float through what's left of my life and hear that nice hum in my head.


	15. Chapter 15 Beal Male Morphling

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my own ideas and characters. Suzanne Collins owns The Hunger Games.

….

Beal

In District 6 going into the Hunger Games is known as a either a death sentence or a gateway to morphling addiction. I hate being here in the Capitol. I hate mentoring. I hate watching kids die on screen. It makes the flashing memories come to life in my head and I can hear the screaming again and the other sounds of death. It's so vivid and so bright, so very bright inside my head…it makes my head feel like it's going to explode! Sounds, and smells, those are the worst triggers for me. The way the door sounds when it closes in the District 6 apartments in the training center. It sounded the same when I was a tribute. I associate that sound with my time spent here as a tribute and so it triggers horrible memories for me. The smell of the lemon soap in the shower reminds me of the day the games started. I can't eat the lamb stew anymore because I threw it up the night of my interview. Being here now is like living in hell. Everything around me reminds me of the worst things that ever happened to me in my whole life.

But it's that way for all of us. All of the people at this table hate this place. If it were not for the people gathered here tonight none of us would be able to make it through the games every year. If you watch people long enough you know what their triggers are. Haymitch hates axes. Whenever he sees a tribute swinging one he closes his eyes or makes a joke and looks away. I can't blame him, he had one in his guts. Seeder hates the cannons. She jumps every time one is fired. She didn't know her ally had died during her games, she had been hunting when she heard her cannon. She ran back to camp and found her friend with her head bashed in. She killed the boy who killed her friend. But she is not ok with that. She jumped when his cannon went off too.

I look around the table. Johnanna, Chaff, Brutus, Woof, and Haymitch are drunk. Gloss is getting there and is slumping down in his chair. His sister is fuming because he's zoned out on her and is letting Seeder fuss over her like a mother hen. Hoster is entertaining Finnick by lassoing Johanna who just threatened him with death. Mags is babbling away to Wiress. Beetee is stabbing at the food on his plate like it might stab him back at any moment. District 5 is talking to Cecelia about their children. It's so noisy in here right now the Capitol's spy equipment won't be able to pick up their conversation anyway. Enobaria keeps baring her pointed teeth at Cashmere. Lyme elbows her and tells her to knock it off which earns her an elbow to the stomach. It's like watching siblings trying to behave at a family dinner. These people are the family I never had. I squeeze Sonia's hand under the table. She smiles at me. It might be a sorry lot of drunks and broken souls but it's the only family I have.


	16. Chapter 16 Blight

Disclaimer: I own nothing, Suzanne Collins owns The Hunger Games.

...

Blight

Dinner is almost over and Avoxes are bringing out carts of loaded with desserts and drinks when the cannon fires. What happens next would be comical if it weren't so sad. Seeder jumps up knocking her chair over. That noise startles Johanna so badly that she grabs a knife and is crouching in a defensive position faster than I can blink. Even Haymitch jumps, throwing a roll into the air. "Who was that for?" Dhala asks. Everyone quickly moves over to the screen to find out. It was the boy from six. He never had a chance. He was short, malnourished, and only 12. He tromped through the woods like an elephant and the Careers caught up to him. Looks like the kill went to the boy from District 1 who put him in a headlock and slit his throat. I see Beal looking at Gloss and Cashmere. Cashmere just glares at them and flops down one of the white cushy chairs that surround the screen. Gloss walks over and says "Sorry man," Beal nods stiffly and he and Sonia wander off to the elevators, no doubt so that they can get even higher than they are now and forget how terrible this day was for them.

Hoster and Haymitch will be sleeping here for the next few days in the big room each taking a watch shift. They trade every four hours or so. They wake each other if a tribute needs a sponsor gift or of some sponsor wants to meet with the other. At this point though after meeting with most of the sponsors last night after the interviews, most money comes in electronically. If we need something really bad, like medicine that costs a lot we could meet with a potential sponsor to try and get the funds. Otherwise unless they want to see us we're done with them until the games are over. I checked our District 7 account before dinner and we have a decent amount of money. Kids survived the bloodbath and they're teaming up. The audience always likes to see friendship. Unfortunately they like to see friendships end in blood. Sick bunch of bastards.

I back up and look at the rest of the screens. My two tributes are asleep in the top of a giant cypress tree near the swamp. Girl from 12 is hiding in a little cave in that foggy, twisted forest. I don't know what lives in that forest but you can bet it's made by game makers. Nothing natural will be in there. Hope that girl has thought about that. The Career pack has eaten and set up camp near the cornucopia and are now hunting down the boy from District 10. He killed their ally and so he must die, his district partner wants revenge. They found the boy from 6 and killed him but he was not what they are looking for. What they don't know is that 10 boy is all the way on the other side of the arena, deep in the swamp. He's up a tree after having used the twilight to cover the smoke from a fire he built. He managed to kill a big, lazy tree snake and he cooked it and ate it. Good thing it wasn't poisonous, although if it was it wouldn't need to be as big as it was. It's the kind of snake that squeezes things to death. The girl from District 3, Moira, is on the far side of the dark forest. She's used some huge rocks lying close together and some branches to create a shelter. Did a pretty good job too, looks natural from the outside. Most of the kids seem to have found food and water, either in the packs they snagged or in the wild. Finnick's boy is up in a tree trying to sharpen the tips of some thick branches with a sharp rock. It's working, but it's tedious and he's getting frustrated. "Finnick!" I call out. He turns away from the dessert cart with a slice of cheesecake in his hand and walks over. "Look," I say. "Your kid needs a knife. There wasn't one in his pack. I know you got oodles of sponsor money for that one. He charmed everyone last night at during his interview. "

"Then a knife he shall get!" Finnick laughs and goes into his r booth to send the boy a silver parachute bearing a knife. I'm on watch for the first few hours because Johanna is toasted. I look over and she's passed out on the red love seat near the back of the room. I pick a big armchair with a footrest and settle in. Lyme goes back into her booth to watch. Enobaria goes upstairs. Brutus sprawls out on one of the couches near Hoster and Haymitch. Seeder sends Chaff to bed and settles into the chair next to mine. "Where's your boy?" I ask her. She points up and to the right. I see him. He's deep in the dark forest sleeping in a hollow tree. I hope he has a peaceful night in there…

Mags walks over to say good night (I think) and then heads for the elevators. Pretty soon the anthem starts up and the faces of the fallen light up the sky over the arena. First comes Naylor's smiling, confident face, followed by Garth's. Then all of the tributes from Districts 5, 6, 8, and 9. Petula from 10, Daisy who was mentored by Seeder, and the boy from 12. I reach over and pat Seeder on the arm. She smiles a sad, small smile. Haymitch sits with his head in his hands for a few minutes and then collapses onto one of the sofas. It's going to be a long night. Happy Hunger Games everyone!


	17. Chapter 17 Finnick

Finnick

What is that boy doing? I know he has a plan, he said as much during his interview but he won't tell anyone what it is, including me! The boy charmed the whole country during his interview. He's got one of those smiles that lights up a room and suggests trouble all at the same time. He's funny and he played off Cesar's banter well, he showed the audience a photo of his younger brother and sister, the whole of Panem is smitten and I've got the sponsor money to prove it. You can't help but like this kid. He's tough, street smart, well spoken, good looking, intelligent and trouble with a capital T. He's the kind of kid that probably drives teachers crazy, I was. Heck, we had people lining up to sponsor him before the interviews though. In the tribute parade he was dressed as a mersoldier and Meranda was the mermaid princess he was protecting. He had on a grey/green sparkling helm, a matching fishtail and a chainmail shirt painted the same sparkling color as the helm. His fishtail was green and silver and he carried a shiny silver trident. Meranda's costume was pink and she wore a crown made of sparkling seashells. Her tail was green to match Dav's and swirled with pink. She had a conch shell war horn which she blew as they rode out of the training center and into the streets. Awhoooo! Awooo! A call to arms. Dav straightened up like a soldier and pounded his trident on the bottom of the chariot for effect. The audience loved it. At one point a fan got too close to the chariot on Meranda's side and before the peace keepers could reach him Dav had sent him flying back onto the ground with his trident. The audience went wild and Dav raised his trident over his head in triumph and bowed to Meranda. She put one hand on his head and gestured for the audience to look at him with the other. When he stood up she blew the horn again and the audience was beside themselves. Everyone was on their feet and screaming and throwing flowers. Yep, sponsors galore. By the end of last night I was telling sponsors that I would only take their money if they agreed to give half of it to a lower district. So, 8,9,10, 11, and 12 all have some sponsor money this year. It's a good feeling to be able to share.

I push the button that drops our gifts and soon enough a little silver parachute drops down in front of Dav. He scrambles down to see what it is and let's out a triumphant "Yessssssssssssss" when he sees the shiny silver weapon. He looks at the sky and says "I could use a shovel too!"

Nervy kid that one. But hey, if he needs a shovel why not. I'll never spend all of this money. The shovel drops down moments later and the kid just laughs and yells "Thanks!" Then he realizes he just gave away his location to anyone nearby. He crouches in the tree, spear in hand and waits, but no one comes. I look up at the monitor with the map of the arena. No one is within a mile of him.

The kid finishes sharpening his sticks and soon he has about 20 razor sharp stakes that are a little more than knee high. Hmmm…he is definitely up to something. The game makers must think so too because when I come out of the booth the live feed going to Panem is of him. He stacks the stakes between two branches with his shovel and scrambles out of the tree. The first thing he does is use the empty parachutes to collect berries that are growing near his hideout. Good thing he paid attention at the edible plants station because there are poisonous ones too growing on the ground nearby but he avoids those. The parachutes make two nice little bags that he ties shut with the strings. He's near the swamp and the moon is full and reflecting off the water. He climbs over some dead logs to a Cyprus with vines hanging down from its branches. He uses his knife to cut down an armload of them and then takes them back up into the tree where he's hiding. He has to make 3 trips and you would think he would be tired but no. He starts weaving nets out of the vines. He's probably been doing this since he was old enough to walk and in no time he has three decent sized nets. Two of them he ties to his pile of stakes and the third he stretches between two branches and ties it down. He unpacks his bedroll and spreads it across the net. Ha! Kid has made himself a hammock! It's about two a.m. he has a few hours to get some sleep before daylight comes. With all the moss and other plants hanging off the tree he's hiding in no one will ever spot him. He lays there eating some of his berries and then goes to sleep. Awesome day for this kid, I can't wait to see what he's up to tomorrow.


	18. Chapter 18 Lyme

Disclaimer: I own only my own ideas, Suzanne Collins owns The Hunger Games

Lyme

It's late and the Careers are still out hunting. Tansy wants that boy from District 10 dead. I found out his name is Hobb. He's one of the biggest threats in the arena if you ask me. They'd do well to take him out and soon. They've been walking around for hours looking for other tributes and all they found was the boy from 6. Levi, the boy from 1 killed him. Too easy. The Career pack is down to four which is small for so early in the games. There's the two kids from District 1, Levi and Shine, then Tansy, and then Meranda from 4. Tansy seems to like Meranda but she hates Shine. I can't blame her. Shine's Cashmere made over. Same blonde hair, same icy demeanor, pretty little stuck up bitch. I've never been pretty and I've been getting hell from girls like that my whole life. Maybe Tansy will end up killing Shine. That would be satisfying. After a few hours of nothing the kids decide to set up camp near a stream. They even light a fire. They're not afraid it will attract anything or anyone. They know that they are what everyone else is afraid of. Tansy and Meranda go to sleep and District 1 keeps watch. I hope that's not a bad idea.


	19. Chapter 19 Hoster District 10

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins does. I own my own characters and ideas.

Hoster

Well, my kid made it through the night. He's doing all right for himself too. He's got food and water, his knife, and his backpack held a canteen, iodine, a first aid kit, some dried beef, crackers, and a blanket. Kids good with a rope like I was. I'd send him one but he's already on top of that. He cut a huge strip of vine off of one of the old trees in the swamp and makes a lasso out of it. He practices a few times, getting used to the weight and feel of it. When he's satisfied he rolls it up and ties it to his backpack. He sits under his tree and eats some of the snake he cooked last night and some crackers. Suddenly there's a splash and Hobb's on his feet in a flash, knife at the ready. He stalks towards the sound and finds the District 3 girl Moira stumbling through the swamp. What Moira doesn't see is the alligator behind her to her left. She probably figured it for a dead log. That particular log's got teeth though. The alligator opens it's mouth and in a split second Hob's got his rope around it's jaws and jerks it away from Moira. Moira screams and runs up the bank to Hobb. He pulls his rope back in and turns around to look at her.

"Ya got any weapons?" he asks, his stance guarded.

"N n no," she stammers.

"Swamp's got alligators, you should be more careful," Hobb tells her.

"I, I, yeah," Moira answers.

"There's also mosquitoes, poisonous plants, quicksand and whatever else lives in that water. Some kinda mutts most like."

"Can you show me which ones are poisonous?" Moira asks hopefully.

Hobb thinks about it for a few seconds and then says "Alright, if I'm gonna show you so something bout plants guess that means you're my ally. What can you do? Anything useful?"

"I can make shelters, and I can camouflage your backpack if you want," she tells him. Hobb looked at his pack. It was bright blue so it would be easy to spot.

"Fine," he agreed.

"Ok, I'll do both of them," Moira said. The relief in her voice was palpable.

Hobb turned around and started back towards his tree. "This a way" he said and Moira followed. When they got back to the tree they sat down and began to take everything out of their packs. Moira's has dried fruit, beef jerky, a bed roll, a loaf of bread, a bottle of water, iodine, and a flimsy clear plastic rain slicker. Moira takes the empty bags to the edge of the water and looks around cautiously.

"Might be snakes too!" Hobb calls over to her. She jumps and shrieks and glares at him when she realizes he's messin with her. Hobb just grins.

She covers the backpacks in mud and leaves and twigs and leaves them in the sun to dry. "Now what?" she asks.

"Now we go lookin for some more food is what," Hobb answers. Bring that rain slicker.

"What do we need the slicker for?" Moira asks.

"I saw berry bushes yesterday while I was running. I know where they are. We's gonna use the slilcker to carry em. Put em in the pockets and the hood till we have something else to carry stuff in

Looks like this game has 3 alliances now. Bad thing about alliances is that it hurts when they get broken.


	20. Chapter 20 Chaff

Disclaimer: I only own the characters I created and my ideas. The Hunger Games and it's characters belong to Suzanne Collins.

…

Chaff

I wake up in my bed in the training center. Looks like I sort of just collapsed on top of it more or less. My mouth is dry and my head is pounding. I walk into the bathroom and use the computer to order something for this headache. Two white pills appear in the delivery slot in the wall and I take them with a glass of water. I set the shower for extra hot with some sort of manly smelling soap. When I'm finally ready to leave I tell the Avoxes not to worry about me that I will eat downstairs but that Seeder is coming up and I don't know what she'll want. I step out of the elevator on the mentor's floor and things seem pretty quiet. Seeder is sitting next to Blight, almost lost in the white squishiness of the chair. "How's it going?" I ask the two of them sliding down onto a divan.

"Six boy died in the night, Careers got him," Blight says glumly.

"Hobb and Moira teamed up" Hoster drawls, "They got themselves an alliance now. He saved her from an alligator."

"Where's Rye?" I ask Seeder.

"He's still asleep inside that tree. I think maybe he stepped on something last night, something that made him sleep.," Seeder whispers.

"Something like what?" I ask her.

"I don't know, just last night when he was running he stepped on some kind of mushrooms and a powdery clouds sort of came up out of them but he kept going so I didn't think it would matter but then he stumbled a little, found that tree and was out. That forest looks evil Chaff. It looks like a forest I saw in a book of fairy stories when I was little."

"Stories from before the dark days?" I ask her grinning.

"From way before the dark days, hundreds of years before the dark days. They were stories for children and there were always witches and dragons and princes and princesses and wicked queens, I loved them," she sighed and I could tell that she was far away inside, remembering something good probably from before she lost her parents.

"Alright then, I'll watch out for wicked queens and fairies and stuff. You go to bed."

"I'd be more worried about the dragons," she said seriously on her way out of the room.

I go over to the table where we ate last night which is now spread with all sorts of delicacies. Crepes, which are some sort of thin pancake thing with fruit or chocolate rolled in them, bacon, sausage, cereals, bagles, French toast omlettes made to order, fruit, biscuits and rolls, butter, anything you could possibly want to eat for breakfast is all laid out ready for you to grab. I fill up a plate, grab a drink, and settle into Seeder's empty chair. Rye is finally starting to wake up, the effects of the mushrooms from last night must be wearing off. He sits up and rubs his eyes and looks around. It's daylight but little sunshine is making it through the thick trees. Kid got out of the bloodbath with a knife but that was it. He's gonna need some things, a water container for one. A blanket, something to eat. I check our sponsor funds. There is a good bit of money thanks to Finnick sending some of his sponsors our way but I think I'll wait a bit before I send too much. I get up and go look through the backpack options that we have available to send to the kids from sponsors. I'm going to have to send the water container and purifying drops if he's going to live because I'm betting that whatever water is in that black forest is poisonous and I wouldn't drink out of the swamp either. I pick a small pack with a water canteen, purifying drops, some dried meat, a pack of dried fruit and a blanket in it and send it down with a note that says he'd better put it to good use. I almost died in my games after I lost my water container, I'm not going to have that happen to a tribute if I can help it. The pack drifts down in front of Rye and he bolts over to it. He make sure he's alone and goes through it hanging the canteen from his belt. Luckily the pack was brown and not some bright color that would stand out. Rye decides to walk back the way he came and he's soon found a stream, a rough running wide one and he sits down to fill his container. Before he sticks his hands in he grabs a stick and shoves that in first. Satisfied that it is in fact water and not acid or some other corrosive substance he fills the canteen and puts in a few drops of iodine to purify it. He climbs back up the bank and sits up in a tree to eat his breakfast which consists of some of the dried beef and fruit from his pack. When he's done he walks out in the open, holds up his canteen and says "Thank you!" I guess he's looking for food because he walks by the stream until he finds a slow, deeper spot, takes his shirt off, ties the neck and arms shut and uses it as a net. He catches two fairly large fish that way That he ties to his belt with one of the parachute strings and walks a little further downriver and stops to pull up some wild onions. Those go in the parachute itself along with some berries growing near the water. Not bad this kid. He might have a chance.


	21. Chapter 21 Johanna

Johanna

I come down and relieve Blight so he can get some sleep and collapse into a chair with a plate of breakfast. Looks like there was only one death during the night, the boy from 6, Sonia and Beal's tribute. I notice that they're not in the common area; they must have gone upstairs to sleep. I check out my two tributes who are on smaller screens on the bottom left. The map shows that the closest tributes are 10 and 3 but they're still about half a mile away. Good thing I'm on duty right now, means Snow can't sell me to any of his "friends" while I'm on duty. Once my tributes are dead then I'm fair game for him. What I wouldn't give to bring an axe into those hotel rooms with me… Onscreen Spruce and Salvia are going through Spruce's backpack. Canteen, full water bottle, iodine, sleeping bag, crackers. They eat what's left of the loaf of bread Salvia grabbed at the cornucopia and share some water. The decide to follow the stream that's feeding the swamp hoping to find cleaner water for their bottles upstream. Spruce keeps the bottle in his pack and he gives Salvia the canteen to strap to her belt. Finally they get to a point where the water looks like it's clear and stop to fill up their containers and wash their faces.

"Spruce, we need food," says Salvia.  
"I roll my eyes, stating the obvious much?" I think.

"We heard the careers pass by last night, they didn't come back, they may have left their supplies unguarded," he says. Salvia looks up at him with a wicked glint in her eyes.

"I'm game," she says, "you?"

"Totally" he answers and jumps up. "We should stay in the trees though until we can see their camp, make sure their gone." He and Salvia scramble up into the trees.

I kick Brutus's foot to wake him up. He sleeps with a knife, I don't want to be too close. When he jolts awake I tell him "My tributes are about to stage a raid on the Career camp."

"Your tributes are about to be dead then," he says and snorts.

"Maybe not because all four Careers went hunting last night and didn't leave anyone to guard the supplies. They still haven't come back," I tell him breezily.

"Where the fuck are they, what are they doing?" he growls and he gets up and walks over to their small screen on the right side of the larger one. What they're doing is sleeping out in the open like a bunch of arrogant idiots but I'll let him find that out for himself.

"They're sleeping? " he yells. He sees Enobaria stepping out of the elevator. "They're still sleeping and 7 is going to raid their camp!"

"How far away from camp are they?" she asks.

"About 3 miles ,"I tell her "and they're out in the open just asking for the game makers to get bored and send something after them."  
"How could they be so stupid?" Enobaria asks no one in particular.

"They're arrogant," Haymitch pipes up from his couch. "They think everything and everyone is afraid of them." Enobaria is about to respond with what is no doubt a smartass comment when a spear flies out of a tree and goes right through Levi's chest. "What the?" screams Enobaria, her hands balling into angry fists at her sides. Cashmere comes running out of her booth and stands next to Enobaria. The spear thrower was the boy from 4, Finnick's interesting little tribute. He's running through the tops of the trees so he's a good 50 feet away when the cannon sounds and wakes up the rest of the Careers. Shine screams when she sees her district partner impaled by the spear. She keeps screaming until Tansy and Meranda run over and shut her up.

"Who did that?" Tansy whispered loudly.  
"Whoever it was can't have gone far, let's go find them!" Meranda whispers back and shoves a knife into Shine's hands and practically drags her through the trees. They give up after 15 minutes or so and decide to return to the cornucopia and keep their camp there for the rest of the games. Shine cries when she watches the hovercraft pick up Levi's body. She follows the girls back towards their camp but her mind seems to have left the arena with her partner. You can tell she's just blindly following the other two, lost inside herself and her grief.

I look at Cashmere. "Did they know each other before the games?" I ask.

She sighs. "Yeah, they were friends. Both 17, in the same year at school, Levi was friends with her brother, he was at their house all the time, they grew up together." She slumps down into a chair and watches as the girls head back to camp.

Finnick has seen the whole thing from the table where he's eating breakfast. Cashmere stands up and turns to him "That kid is dead Finnick," she hisses.

Finnick just laughs and says "They have to catch him first!"


	22. Chapter 22 Finnick

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins does. I only own my own characters and ideas.

…

Finnick

I know I should go to sleep and let Mags take over but I just have to know what this kid is up to. He just speared a career for Panem's sake! Where did that come from? He had woken up and gone looking for something when he came up on the four Careers asleep on the ground. Since he had been moving through the trees and they were asleep he wasn't in any immediate danger. But the Careers were the biggest threat in the arena. He would never get a chance to take one out so easily again. What's that saying-Lightning doesn't strike the same place twice? So the kid crouched down in the tree above the boy from District 1 and threw the spear as hard as he could and then ran. When he finally got back to his base tree he was out of breath and shaking. Poor kid just kept looking at his hands like he couldn't believe they'd killed someone, that it was his hands that had thrown the spear. When he saw tears dripping down onto them he got angry, jumped down from the tree and started kicking it. When he was finally spent he wiped his face on his sleeve and went back up the tree to get his shovel. He walked a short distance over to a tree near the stream and started digging. He dug for a long time and after a while it became obvious that t his was a project that would last several hours. I turned over the control room to Mags and went upstairs to get a shower and few hours of sleep.


	23. Chapter 23 Blight

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins does. I own only my own characters and ideas.

…..

Blight

I decided to stay downstairs and see what happened to my tributes raiding the Career camp. Not much left of the Careers though, only the three girls and that girl from 1 don't seem too stable right now. The other two didn't seem to like her much anyway so I don't think it will be too long before there is no Career Pack. Spruce and Salvia are in the trees on the edge of the field where the cornucopia sits gleaming in the sun. The supplies have been separated into two piles: weapons and food. I glance at the monitor with the map and see that the three career girls are still a couple of miles away at least. My two tributes are going to get out of there home free! Finally they come out of their tree and sprint across the grass to the stacks of supplies. Salvia grabs a pack and starts filling it with food-dried meat, apples, bread, crackers, and more water. Spruce has grabbed two axes, two hatchets, another knife, a bedroll and a first aid kit. When they can't carry any more they sprint back into the trees. They're dividing up their spoils when they hear voices. Both kids grab their axes and step backwards, away from whoever is coming towards them.

The rustling in the bushes stops when the three Career girls step into the clearing. Tansy, the girl from district 2 looks around taking in the supplies that were being divided up and the two kids carrying axes. "Looks like we found our thieves," she growled. " Now let's show them what we do with thieves." Tansy and Meranda draw their weapons. Shine seems to realize what's happening and pulls a good sized knife out from the inside of her coat.

" You sure you girls want to mess with us?" Spruce asks.

"Oh, we're sure. Bring it." Tansy laid down the challenge  
Spruce and Salvia move so that they are back to back, ready to fight. The disctrict 7 kids are armed with a long axe, a hatchet, and each also carries a knife. The three career girls are all armed with knives of various sizes and a bow and arrow. Tansy starts the fight by taking a swing at Salvia that was intercepted by the blade of Spruce's hatchet. The front half of her arm fell to the ground and blood was spraying everywhere. Everyone was screaming, but mostly Tansy, Meranda looked around and began sawing through a strip of vine. She ran over and started tying it tightly around Tansy's arm to stop the bleeding. Shine, the grieving girl from district 1 grabbed Meranda's bow and arrows from the ground where she left them and turned towards district 7 who had started to run in all the confusion. Salvia grabbed the food pack and Spruce the bedroll and they turned tail and ran. They didn't run fast enough though because one of Shine's arrows met its mark in Spruce's leg. I think he was so full of adrenalin that he never slowed down, he just kept running with an arrow sticking out of his leg. After about twenty minutes or so the kids find a partially hollow redwood tree near the stream. Since redwoods are huge they can both stand up inside and lay down at night. They collapse insidetheir new hideout, exhausted from running and take stock of the damage. Salvia wants to look at Spruce's leg but he says no, that they need to check their supplies. They had their original bag full of supplies so they have a blanket, a knife, the water containers, the iodine and the little bit of food that was left in them. In addition to that they both now have two axes, and another knife which Salvia tells Spruce to keep since she has the other one. They have several sealed water bottles and another bed roll and entire pack of food. The tree has a hole a little further up the trunk that would draw smoke if a fire was built. Salvia sets the bedrolls up on either side of a fire pit she makes with rocks. She opens the first aid kit that came with the new bedroll and finds a needle and thread for stitching, alcohol wipes, bandages, antibiotic cream, sunscreen, something for sunburn, and fever pills. Salvia dragged in wood for a fire and then started building a blind across the door out of hanging moss, replanted shrubs, and sticks that were hung in the moss. She reinforced it with an extra layer of moss on the inside so that very little light came in and very little light would go out.

That girl might be able to sew him up but she's going to need powerful antibiotics if he gets an infection. I check our account. Money enough to send one dose of super antibiotics and one morphling tablet. I send those down on a parachute and Salvia peeks out when she hears the tinkling little song that accompanies it. Her hand flashes out, grabs the bag, gives a thumbs up sign as a "thank you" and is gone. Spruce has water boiling in the canteen now and Salvia is cleaning her needle and thread in it. The she collects some of the boiling water in a bottle and asks Spruce if he's ready. He nods his head. He had already broken the head off the arrow now he pulls it out of his leg and Salvia poured the boiling water through the hole. Spruce screamed and Salvia stuffed the morphling tablet in his mouth. She handed him some water and told him to drink it and shut up. When he had calmed down Salvia began to sew him up. By the time she finished both holes he was out cold. Salvia wrapped the leg in a fresh bandage and dragged Spruce over to his sleeping bag. She covered him up, sat a water bottle beside him and lay down for some rest and to wait for the anthem to play in a few hours.

I turn away from the screen and look at Johanna who is for once looking happy. "We got fighters this year huh?" I say to her.

"I just hope that fight stays in them," she says and then leans over and kisses me on the cheek. "Good night Blight she says. Or good afternoon maybe would be more accurate. Either way, have a good sleep."

"After this morning I think I will have a good sleep, I have something good to dream about! I say back to her and then I step into the elevator so I can go sleep in my bed in peace.


	24. Chapter 24 Cashmere

Cashmere

Holy shit! What sort of Career pack do we have this year? The boys are already dead and it's only day 2 and now the girl from District 2 has lost one of her hands? Not to mention that Shine seems to have had a breakdown of some sort. At least she had the good sense to grab the bow and arrows and shoot the boy from 7. Too bad her aim wasn't better. I want to see what Enobaria's going to do about Tansy's arm. I walk over to the District 2 booth where Enobaria, Lyme, and Brutus are huddled in front of the screens showing Tansy and the other two girls. It's chaos in there, there should be a joke about it-"What happens when you throw three killers in a room during a crisis?"

Brutus is pacing back and forth pulling at his hair yelling "We've got to do something! We've got to do something!" Lyme and Enobaria are arguing about what they should send to Tansy and I think they're ready to start punching each other. I raise my eyebrows and turn around to leave but Mags hobbles in. She pats Brutus on the shoulder and steps in between Lyme and Enobaria, murmuring soothingly. The yelling stops but no one has any idea what to do or what Mags is saying.

"What are you babbling about old woman?" Lyme snarls. Mags just pats her on the arm again and points back at the screen.

"I think she's telling you to watch and wait," I say quietly. Enobaria turns towards me and bares her pointed teeth at me, her lips pulled back in a grotesque mockery of a smile. Mags pats her on the face as if she is chastising her and points at me and nods.

"You think we should wait?" asks Enobaria. Mags nods and points back to the screens. We all turn to look. District 7 has fled and Meranda has managed to stop Tansy's arm from bleeding by twisting the vine tourniquet tightly using a stick to hold it in place and twist it even tighter. Tansy is screaming in pain and shaking and Meranda sits her down against a tree and convinces her to drink some water. Shine walks over to them and squats down next to Tansy.

"What do we do?" she asks Meranda.

"We've got to get her back to camp, it's her only chance, it's not too far but she's got to walk, we can't carry her." Meranda tells her. "Too bad the boys are dead," I think.

Shine moves until she's sitting directly in front of Tansy. "Tansy," she says sternly, "you are going to have to walk do you understand? You are going to have to walk back to camp, ok?"

"I can't," Tansy whispers.

"You can and you will!" Shine yells. "You will not die! Levi died today and you will not die too!" Tansy just stares at her but finally she nods and moves her feet so that the other two girls can help her stand. Shine takes most of her weight and Meranda holds up her other side and keeps the tourniquet in place. Slowly, step by step they make it back to camp. Meranda sets up a tent and stuffs a bedroll inside. She and Shine help to lay Tansy down. She's looking worse and shaking more.

"Get her to drink more," Meranda tells Shine, shoving a bottle into her hand. I'm going to see what I can find in the supplies. Shine helps Tansy pick her head up to drink and Meranda walks over to the stack of things that had been put just inside the cornucopia. Those things that were neither weapons nor food. She starts opening first aid kids and boxes and finally comes up with a bottle of rubbing alcohol and some bandages. There's not much else of use. She walks back over to Tansy's tent and tells Shine to come and help her. "Do you know what to do?" Meranda asks Shine.

"No, not really, what do we have?" Shine answers. Meranda holds up the alcohol and the bandages.

"What about fire?" Shine whispers.

"Fire? What do you mean?" Meranda asks, glancing furtively at Tansy.

"You can seal wounds with fire, it's called cauterizing, I read about it," Shine said.

"Well what do we do?" Meranda asked.

"First we build a fire, then we have to burn the wound, usually metal is heated up and pressed into it."

"We could use one of the swords or the big knives, but how are we going to get her to let us do it?" Meranda whispered, keeping an eye on Tansy.

"I don't know, but we have to do it, it's the only way she'll live!" Shines hisses. "I'll get the fire started."

"Ok, and then we need to make some broth out of the dried beef, she needs the iron from it, it replenishes blood cells," Meranda says.

"How do you know _that_?" Shine asks, smiling.

"My mother's a healer for the fishermen," Meranda says and runs back over to Tansy. Back in the booth Mags is nodding and smiling like everything is just wonderful but Lyme and Enobaria have come to an agreement. They check their funds, which are plentiful since they're a Career district and send down a small bottle of sleep syrup and some morphling tablets. A small fortune floating on a parachute. Now Meranda and Shine can knock Tansy out, cauterize her arm, and treat her pain. I just hope they understand what to do.


	25. Chapter 25 Gloss

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games.

…  
Gloss

Finally, my turn to sleep! Cashmere is downstairs watching disaster befall what is left of the Career Pack. Unfortunately I was downstairs long enough to see Levi get speared while he was sleeping. He was a good kid, a _nice_ kid, a kid who deserved better honestly. I flop down in my bed after a quick shower and hope that sleep will come quickly. I know better. I go into the bathroom and call up a bottle of sleep syrup from the computerized screen above the sink. The bottle comes and I take it back to my bed. I need to think and unwind a little before I down the bottle, or I'll have nightmares. I keep seeing Levi's smiling face at the reaping, on the train car, but when I close my eyes I see him lying dead on the ground with a spear through his chest and that little weasel from 4 running off through the trees. He wasn't part of the pack because he was too small and scrawny. Our tributes had wanted to ally with the boy from District 10 instead but he refused. He's still alive too. The field's getting pretty narrow and I don't think that Shine's going to win. Honestly I didn't think that either of the two kids we got this year had what it takes to win. You need ice in your veins or the heat of bloodlust and those two didn't have it from the beginning.

Cashmere did in her games. She went in and killed people without hesitation. No second thoughts. She thought she'd be coming home to the perfect life, she was so wrong. I followed her into the games, winning the next year. I wasn't like her though; I was so damned scared that I just killed out of instinct, I wanted to survive. Cashmere stalked her prey, lured it in with that blonde hair and those blue eyes. I followed my prey and killed it when it attacked. We may be siblings but we're not the same.

It wasn't until after my games that we were called to the Capitol and told how we would be "helping out" the president by "going on dates" with his friends. Imagine being thrown into the arena, surviving the horrors of the game makers and killing other kids only to be told that you're being sold off to the highest bidder because you did what 23 other kids didn't, you survived. That makes you desirable to these Capitol freaks. They think it's amazing to sleep with a killer. But we're not killers, we're victors. So when I'm in the Capitol I always have some woman on my arm. Old women, young women, drunk women, women with purple skin and pink hair. You want to know something? I don't even like women! Yeah, I swing the other direction! I can't let anyone know that though, not here, it would spoil the illusion of the handsome playboy victor. I'm so tired of the charade I have to put on here. The games changed me, they made me into a monster, a killer, someone I didn't want to be. I thought I wanted it, but really, I had no idea how awful it was. That part was bad enough. Being someone I'm not because I'm in fear of my life is worse. The only part of being in the Capitol I like is getting to be with the other victors. Cashmere hates it, but I don't. They've been there too. They understand.


	26. Chapter 26 Beetee

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games

...

Beetee

Moira's teamed up with District 10. Which is good I guess, he's big and strong; he can help protect her. Kids have won before because someone protected them. Beal is one of them. He teamed up with the two kids from District 11 who were both strong from years spent working in the fields. The games were long that year and Beal sort of became like a little brother to the other two. The girl from 11 got killed by a mutt and the final three were Beal, the boy from 11 Barley, and the boy from 2. Beal and Barley had just decided to separate when the Career boy jumped down out of a tree in front of them. Barley stepped up to fight him armed with a short sword. The boy from two also had one and they went around for a while before the boy from 2 got in a hit under Barley's arm. Went straight through his heart. The Career wasn't too smart though because he lost track of Beal during the fight. He probably thought he would be an easy kill. He was pulling his knife out of Barley's body when Beal stabbed him in the back with the dagger he'd carried through the games. Two's cannon sounded and suddenly Beal found himself a victor. He figured he would die in the games so he wasn't prepared for the hand that life deals victors and he turned to morphling to help fight his demons.

Moira could win if Hobb stays alive long enough. The kids have managed to gather up a decent amount of berries and Hobb dug up some sort of tuber like roots growing at the edge of the swamp. At least they won't starve. Moira suggests moving away from the swamp to set up camp for the night and Hobb agrees, telling her he's had enough of alligator wrestling for one day. They find a big Cyprus tree just outside the water and climb up to have their meal. I sit and listen to their conversation and wonder if I was ever really that young.

"So what's it like in 3?" Hobb asks.

Moira sighs. "It's dirty," she says. "At least outside. Inside the buildings where the electronics are manufactured it's pristine and climate controlled. But outside the buildings are covered in dust. It's always cloudy but it doesn't really rain very much. There's not many trees or much grass. It was a big city once, before the war so there's just buildings lots of buildings. What's it like in 10?"

Hobb smiled as he began to talk. "Well," he drawled, "it's flat. Not too many buildings, just a lot of fields for the animals. There's plenty grass and a whole lot of sun. It's hot most days. People live in little groups, like villages so's they can share a well. We ain't got no cars or nothin, sometimes a boss has an old truck but we walk everywhere. If you's rich you maybe got a horse to ride. But we eat ok, everybody has a garden. Peacekeepers don't bother you much if you don't cause trouble."

"Our peacekeepers check you every time you leave the factories to make sure you aren't stealing anything. One time they shot a man who had forgotten to take his pliers out of his pocket," Moira tells him. "People mostly live in apartments. Even the rich people but they get the top floor of some of the taller buildings."

"How do you get around?" asks Hobb.

"We have buses. They're really old ones but we've made them solar powered now so that they don't pollute the air any more. That's what my dad does, he repairs solar panels on buses and buildings. My mom works on an assembly line. So do I three days a week. We make entertainment devices for the capitol for listening to music and things."

"Who has time for listening to music?" Hobb asks laughing.

"People in the Capitol I guess," Moira answers.

"I work with sheep," Hobb tells her. "I raise em, keep wild animals away, shear em when it's time. My sister's nine, she likes to come down to the barns and pet the lambs in the spring. Sometimes she comes every day."

"Nobody minds?" Moira asks, incredulous.

"Nah, don't nobody mind. Lots of kids like to come and see the baby animals. Long as they ain't hurtin em or gettin in the way nobody cares. Besides lambs there's calves, piglets, kids, chicks, ducklings, all kinds of little animals," Hobb says looking wistful.

"Kids?" Moira asks.

"Yeah, baby goats is called kids," he says with a smile.

"Oh. We only have dogs and cats. There's some strays but the peacekeepers take a lot of the dogs they find on the street and train them to be security dogs. They patrol the factories at night and the fence around the District. My family has a cat. She's black and white. Her name is Checkers," Moira tells him.

"Dogs in 10 help keep the herds together and keep other animals away. They mostly eat in the barns but some people have em as pets if they can afford it. Same with cats, they live in the barns catchin mice," says Hobb.

"Do you have a dog?" Moira asks.

"Nah, I did once. His name was Sprat. He was brown an white but he died."

"Oh I'm sorry," Moira says, looking embarrassed.

"Nah, it's ok, he was old is all," Hobb says. "Maybe one of us will live to be old."

"Maybe," Moira whispers in reply.


	27. Chapter 27 Mags

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games I only own my own characters and ideas.

Mags

What a day. That poor District 2 girl getting her hand chopped off. Poor thing was so weak she couldn't even whimper by the time Meranda and that other girl got her back to camp. Meranda has the right idea but Tansy's not going to make it. Brutus and Enobaria and Lyme know it too but they're not ready to admit it. District 2 never admits defeat until they absolutely have to. I've been watching that boy of Finnick's too and I finally figured out what he's up to. He's making traps. He spent a good part of the day digging pits around a tree near the stream. It's a tree that people are likely to pass by on their way to get water because there's sort of a clearing and the bank isn't steep there. He left three strips of ground about 2 feet wide in between the pits, just big enough to run on. Then he took all of those sharpened sticks he was working on yesterday and pushed them into the soft ground. Soon he had three pits full of waist high stakes. Now he's covering them with the nets he made last night and covering the nets with leaves and grass and dirt and sticks. Soon he has something that looks more or less natural. In the dark a person wouldn't notice anything. Dav knows the only three ways in and out of the tree itself.

He had kept three of the handmade spears and he took one into the middle of the stream to fish. Soon he had three trout to cook up and make a good meal out of. The kid is brazen, it's early evening and he's starting a fire to bake those fish on rocks. I know that he set that fire on purpose, it's there to lure people in. He doesn't have long to wait as footsteps are rapidly approaching. It's Rye from District 11. He comes out from behind a bush and the boys stand facing each other across the fire.

"District 4," says Rye.

"District 11, says Dav.

"What are you cooking?" Rye asks.

"Fish," Dav answers.

"Smells good. I believe I might like some of that fish you have there 4.

"What if I say no?" Dav asks.

"Then my knife will change your mind," 11 boy says.

"I doubt it!" laughs Dav who takes off running. Rye follows Dave up the hill towards the tree. Dav scrambles up with no problem so Rye thinks he shouldn't have any problems chasing a kid up a tree and shoving him out. Rye is still about eight feet away and I notice that Dav has scrambled over to the right side of the tree. Rye veers to charge him straight on and then suddenly he's gone! Disappeared into one of Dav's pits. I can tell from the moaning and screaming that Rye had been impaled on one. His death wasn't so quick as it might have been do Dav slunk down the tree near him.

"Finish it, finish me." Rye whispered when Dav put his ear close. "Oh, and give this to my sister." It was a silver necklace made to look like an ear of corn and a spring of wheat.

"I will," Dav says, his voice choked with emotion. "I'm sorry man. I just didn't want to die"

"No, it's not your fault, it's all part of this stupid game. I was going to kill you. Now do me so this pain stops," Rye chokes out, coughing up blood.

"K man, well then, goodnight and goodbye I guess." Dav quietly says.

"Yeah, I like that, goodnight and goodbye," Rye breathes as Dav slits his throat.

_Boom! _His cannon is dead and Dav reaches over and closes his eyes.


	28. Chapter 28 Blight

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games, just my own characters.

…..

Blight

I came down to fill in for Johanna and she gives me the rundown of the day's activities before heading upstairs to bed. Spruce has been sleeping for most of the day and Salvia has dozed in and out. Finally Spruce opens his eyes and looks around. When he sees Salvia he seems to remember what happened and where he is.

"How's your leg?" Salvia asks. Spruce sits up and tries to move his leg but he only manages a groan.

"It hurts!" he hisses through clenched teeth. Salvia gets up and feels Spruce's forehead for a temperature.

"You're burning up! Here, take these," she tells him and hands him the antibiotic and two fever pills along with a bottle of water.

"Do we have anything else for the pain?" he asks.

"I have half a morphling tablet. But you need to eat before you go to sleep so your body has energy to heal. Also that antibiotic will probably upset your stomach if you don't."

"But Sal, I'm not hungry," Spruce whined.

"Too bad buddy," she told him. You're going to eat this. She hands him a piece of bread spread with jelly and a chunk of dried beef. "Eat it all."

"Where did the bread and jelly come from?" he asked.

"I grabbed it back at the Career's camp. I wasn't really paying attention to what I grabbed but we got some pretty good stuff, so eat!" Salvia says and pokes him playfully. He grins back at her.

Oh God, what have got going on here? It's the arena for Christ's sake, they can't like each other! Ahhhh! Teenagers! Fortunately the anthem starts and breaks up their happy little dinner. Salvia peeks through the blind to see the faces of the fallen. "It's the boy from 1 and the boy from 11!" she tells Spruce. " I thought that second cannon would be Tansy's for sure!"

"Who all is dead Salvia?" Spruce asks.

"Well, let's see, the boys from 1 and 2, the boy from 3, both from 5, 6, 8, and 9. The girl and now the boy from 11, girl from 10 and the boy from 12. That's 15 dead. Nine kids left.

"So Tansy's still out there. Man she's got to be hurting because my leg is killing me and she lost her whole hand!" Spruce says wincing.

"Do you want the half a morphling tablet or do you want me to break that in half and keep some for later?" Salvia asks.

"Break it in half again. I might need it tomorrow." Salvia breaks the pill and Spruce downs it. Soon both kids are asleep.


	29. Chapter 29 Haymitch

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games

…

Haymitch

I have the watch tonight so Hoster can go to bed. My remaining tribute, Star, spent the night in tiny cave in that weird twisted forest. She spent part of her day building a blind for her cave and the rest looking for food. She grabbed a water container before she fled the cornucopia, it was practically lying at her feet and she found a stream last night to fill that up. Her biggest problem was that she didn't have anything to eat. She didn't seem to want to leave the forest; even with all of its fog and creepy hanging moss. I swear I saw a bunch of mushrooms close their eyes when she walked by. After a couple of hours she came upon a grove of fruit trees. Now let me tell you-during my time in the games I learned not to trust any food that grew on any trees in the arena. Everything in that arena so many years ago was beautiful, and every bit of it was deadly. The only safe food came from the cornucopia or sponsors and only the rain was drinkable. A nice grove of fruit trees in a dark scary forest looks suspicious to me but apparently not to Star. Star's different anyway. She seems to sort of float through life with her head in the clouds, only her District Partner told me that it's not in the clouds it's in the medieval stories and history books that she dug up in the library basement. Something about being a princess waiting for some knight on a white horse to carry her off. That bullshit was in the basement for a reason; so little girls don't get foolish ideas about a life that will never happen. I kinda think that maybe that's why Star doesn't want to leave the forest. She feels comfortable there because it reminds her of a story.

So, the girl finds the fruit trees and begins to fill up her pockets and the front of her shirt with it. Suddenly the air around her is filled with silver sparkly insects or something and they may or may not be whispering. They seem to make a tinkling sound and Star turns around and talks to them. I squint at the screen, oh God they have faces! Maybe they're fairies or something, whatever they are it can't be good they're obviously mutts! Everything seems fine though until Star turns to walk away with the fruit. The silver fairy things seem to get agitated and start swarming. More and more of them come out of the trees. Star starts to run and they fly after her, surrounding her, attacking her and she's screaming and I can't see what's happening through the cloud of fog and silver wings. Suddenly a cannon blast rings through the arena and almost instantly the silver things disappear. I get a closer look at poor Star: all of her hair had been pulled out piece by piece. She had tiny bite marks all over her body that oozed a venomous green liquid. Poor Star, she died for taking delight in a fairy story. Turns out fairies aren't so sweet after all and this story will have no happily ever after. God damnit!


	30. Chapter 30 Lyme

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games, only my own characters and ideas.

….

Lyme

Shit Tansy's looking pretty bad. Shine and Meranda figured out what to do with the parachute we sent down and they have Tansy sleeping comfortably. The fire is built up and a sword has been stuck in it to heat up. "Are you ready for this?" Meranda asks Shine.

"No, but it's got to be done," Shine answers.

"Ok, first we need to use one of the alcohol wipes from the first aid kit to wipe down the wound," Meranda says and digs around until she finds the kit in the pile of supplies she had set out.

"I think we should pour water on it first, to rinse out any debris," Shine volunteers.

"You're probably right, hand me one of those bottles ok?" Shine hands over a bottle of water and Meranda looks at Tansy. "Do you think she'll wake up?"

"I don't know," Shine replies with fear in her eyes.

"Ok, here's what we're going to do: Shine you sit on her shoulders and hold her down. I'll clean and burn the wound ok?" Meranda says.

"Ok. Let's go," Shine says and walks over to where Tansy is laying. She gets up behind her head and puts her knees on the girl's shoulders and pulls her wounded arm up so that the stump is accessible to Meranda. Tansy whimpers but she doesn't wake up yet. Sleep syrup is pretty strong stuff so hopefully she'll be out for a while. Meranda walks over with the water and the alcohol and takes a deep breath. She takes the makeshift bandages off of Tansy's arm and begins pouring water over the wound. Tansy begins to stir and squirm but Shine holds on tight. When Meranda begins to sterilize the wound with the alcohol Tansy's eyes open and she lets out a squeal.

"What are you doing?" she squeaks.

"Cleaning your wound, now be still," Meranda tells her.

"It hurts, shit it hurts!" Tansy says pounding her other hand into the ground.

"Shine, half a morphling tablet and more sleep syrup please," Meranda orders. This girl would make an awesome doctor or nurse. Shine gets Tansy to take the pill and drink a little more syrup. In a couple of minutes she's out again and Meranda resumes cleaning the wound. When she's done she lays the arm on a square of clean bandages and gets up to pull the sword out of the fire. "Hold her arm up Shine," Meranda says. Shine holds up Tansy's mutilated arm and Meranda presses the end of the red hot sword onto the exposed raw wound. Tansy's body stiffens and her eyes flutter and a low moan escapes her lips but she doesn't open her eyes. "Ok, it's done," Meranda tells Shine tossing the sword aside. "Now all we can do is wait and see. Meranda wraps Tansy's arm in clean bandages and lays it across her chest. The girls finally sit down to eat something when the anthem starts up. They watch Levi's face appear in the sky and tears begin to run down Shine's face. The boy from 11, Rye appears and then everything goes black.

"Were you friends with Levi back home Shine?" Meranda asks.

Shine nods and sobs. "He was my brother's best friend. He was in the same year as me at school, my brother's a year older but Levi lived near us and they met when they were little. They've been together ever since. Jet, my brother, must be so heartbroken, and so _**angry. **_I am, I want to kill that boy from your district! I want him dead, I want to watch him bleed! I hate him!" Shine is yelling by now and she gets up and grabs the sword Meranda discarded earlier and begins hacking at a tree with it. With every swing she's yelling "I hate him!". When she's spent she sinks down next to the tree sobbing.

"You ok?" Meranda asks warily.

"Yeah, I just keep thinking about how terrible it's going to be for his family, for Jet. It's so unfair, it's all unfair, all of this." Meranda gives her a warning look and gets up and leads her back to the fire.

"Do you want to tell me about District 1?" Meranda asks, trying to distract Shine from her rage and grief.

"What do you want to know?" Shine asks.

"Everything!" Meranda answers smiling.

"District one is mostly a city but there are some parks in it and lots of trees. About 10 years ago there was a big tree planting initiative to improve the air quality. So now every city block has at least 3 trees on it in the business district and people have to have at least one tree in their yard in the residential areas. Kind of weird huh?" Meranda giggles. "In the main square there's a fountain with a statue of a man with a spear. The water shoots up all around him and at night it lights up. I always liked looking at it lit up in the dark. At school we have to wear uniforms. Skirts for the girls and ties for the boys. I hate that."

"What do your parents do?" Meranda asks.

"My dad's a jeweler. He takes the gems our district mines and sets them in jewelry. He designs it all himself. He made this." Shine pulls a necklace out from under her shirt. It's a gold filigree heart with a pink moonstone. "It's my District token. My mom works in his shop and handles the orders from the Capitol. A lot of the time it's chilly there, but we do get some warm days. Even on the cold days the sun shines most of the time. Sometimes it snows."

"I've never seen snow," Meranda says. In 4 it's always warm, even when it rains. Sometimes we get huge storms coming in off the ocean with really bad winds but it's never cold."

"What about your family, what do they do?" asks Shine.

Meranda smiles, her eyes lighting up when she begins to talk about her family. "My mom's a healer," she begins.

"Big surprise there," says Shine with a grin.

"My dad sells clothing to the fishermen on the docks. His shop is right next to the port. I work in there sometimes. My older brother used to help but now he goes out on one of the boats. He says he loves the open ocean. There's lots of beaches and we swim in the ocean all the time. I have a little sister too, she loves to swim, and she would stay in the water all day every day if she could. She wants to be a mermaid."

Shine laughs. "We should probably get some sleep. Or you should, I'll take the first watch. 4 hours sound ok?"

"Yeah, it's fine. I'll check on Tansy, you should check on her in a couple of hours and get her to eat some of that broth that's been cooking. It should be ready by now. It might not taste very good but she needs to eat it when she wakes up. There's more morphling and sleep syrup too, but not a lot so don't give her too much." Meranda says.

"Ok, good night Meranda," Shine says.

"Good night Shine," Meranda replies and heads over to Tansy's shelter to check on her arm. She looks at the wounded arm and seems satisfied and she heads over to her own bedroll and goes to sleep.

My tribute is still alive thanks to the girl from District 4. I need to go and thank Mags and Finnick for that at some point.


	31. Chapter 31 Seeder

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.

Thanks to Cookie05 for the reviews. Could some more of you review please? I would love the feedback!

…

Seeder

Both of my tributes are dead now. At least Finnick's little imp was kind to him and he didn't die alone. It could have been a lot worse. He could have been tortured to death by a Career. He could have been ripped apart by a mutt. After the hovercraft took him away Dav, the boy who killed him climbed back up into his hammock and cried for a good hour. Poor kid, he'll never be the same if he makes it out of there. None of them ever are. I've had years to make peace with what I did in the arena but I still have nightmares. I'll never truly be ok with myself. I just try and do the best I can for my tributes and my family and be supportive of the other mentors. Kindness can go a long way in a bad situation.

I decide to go up to the roof for some fresh air and find that Cecelia and Haymitch have already had the same idea. They're sitting on chairs near the edge of the building looking down over the city. Haymitch is taking a swig from his bottle and Cecelia has a pitcher of lemonade on a table beside her. They look up when they hear the elevator door open. Cecelia smiles when she sees me and Haymitch raises his bottle in greeting. I pull a chair up to sit beside them and look down at the city below me. Even though it's the middle of the night people are everywhere. There's a nightclub on the corner advertising a Hunger Games costume party. I guess that means you can dress as past tributes? The bars are packed with people making bets on the next kid to die. Wonder who will have the odds not in their favor next? I look away, disgusted and turn to Haymitch instead. "Sorry about Star," I tell him.

"Yeah, thanks. Did you see what happened? Fucking _fairies_ or something got her. They were silver. They had faces, I saw them," he says, incredulous.

"Yeah, I saw," I tell him. "Poor girl, she thought they were pretty."

"Pretty gets you killed in The Hunger Games, I told her that. I learned that from…" he trails off.

"Maysilee," I say.

"Yeah, from her. Sorry about Rye too. Guess we're all losers up here."

"Haymitch! Cecelia scolds and smacks him on the arm.

"What? It's true, we lost. Now we have to go home and tell the families how sorry we are that we couldn't keep their kids alive. I just love that part," Haymitch says, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Finnick's kid's gonna win. You watch."

"Why do you think that?" I ask him.

"He's just like Finnick, handsome kid, devilish little smile, smart, and he just has damn good luck. It'll be him, you'll see."

"I thought maybe his district partner, Meranda," Cecelia says. "She can think under pressure and she's a fighter. What do you think Seeder?"

"I don't know. Seven is strong, Ten is strong, hard to tell. Doesn't matter anyway, even if you win you lose."

"Too true," whispered Cecelia.

"See," said Haymitch, "we're all losers."


	32. Chapter 32 Brutus

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games, only my own characters and ideas. Thanks for the reviews on my last chapter! Keep reading and keep reviewing!

...

Brutus

The girl's going to die. Too much blood loss, infection has apparently set in, she's a goner. I'm going to use the rest of our sponsor money to send down an antibiotic but I'm not sure it's going to help at this point. . District two is not going to have a victor this year. Shit.

It's been two days of nothing interesting happening, no deaths or anything and the game makers are going to be getting bored. The first day after Tansy was wounded she slept a lot but the other two seemed to think she was ok. By that night she had spiked a fever. Yesterday was even worse, she was delirious and Meranda couldn't get any food or water into her. I wanted to send medicine then but the price had gone up and we didn't have enough money. Enobaria went to meet with some sponsors and she either threatened them or did them some sort of "favor," I don't know, but she came back with the money. I go and send down the parachute and Shine snatches it up.

"Meranda," she hollers, "we got medicine!" Meranda grabs it from Shine's hand and injects it into Tansy's arm.

"Do you think it will help?" Shine asks.

"Honestly? No. See those things that look like bruises on her body? It's caused by sepsis, blood poisoning. She doesn't have any food in her to give her body any strength either and she's getting dehydrated. She needs to be in a hospital where they can give her an IV. I don't know if this medicine will help her now or not." Meranda sits back on her heels and re-wets the socks they have been keeping on Tansy's forehead to cool her off. Shine found them in one of the backpacks left at the cornucopia. Shine sits down a few feet away and scuffs the dust with her toes. "Meranda, you know if she dies we're going to have to split up right?" she says softly.

"I know," Meranda whispers. "We're down to the final eight, do you think they did the interviews with our families yet?"

"Probably," Shine says. "I wonder if Jet liked being on TV?"

"I bet my little sister did," Meranda says giggling.

The Capitol had done the interviews yesterday and Meranda's little sister did like being on TV. Shine's brother was just angry over the death of his best friend. The District 3 girl's parents just looked totally shell shocked like they couldn't believe she was still alive. They probably expected her to be bloodbath fodder. Everybody else did. Her ally's parents were proud, thrilled that their son was doing so well. You could tell his mother wanted to cry though. The parents from District 7 were pretty quiet, like they were afraid to be hopeful. Can't blame them. That boy of Finnick's his family seemed cheerful, as if they had some hope. His little brother and sister talked about how much they missed him. Tansy's mother cried through her whole interview and her father looked mad as hell. I hate the interviews, it makes the tributes more human. When you see their families they become more than just an enemy to be eliminated, they become a person with a life and people who love them. It's better if they just die and I don't know anything about them.

I got to know too much about my own district partner during my games. Her name was Dana. She was a little black haired girl, cruel, good with spears and knives. We became friends on the way to the Capitol, we trained as a team. We fought together in the bloodbath and carried out a plan to kill the other careers in their sleep only three days into the games. By that time I knew her favorite color, how much she loved her older sister, the name of the boy she had a crush on, everything. When it came down to the final three we decided to split up. She went to walk away and I grabbed her by her hair and slit her throat. Before I did she whispered "Et tu Brute?" I never found out what that meant and I never forgot the look in her eyes as she was dying. Her eyes said that I had betrayed her. But that wasn't it. I knew that whichever of us made it home would have to live a life as a broken person, forever changed by what we had done. We had become monsters. I was trying to protect her because that's what friends do, they look out for each other.

_Boom! _I snapped out of my daydream and looked back up at the screen. The cannon was for Tansy. I couldn't protect her either.


	33. Chapter 33 Johanna

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games, just my characters and ideas. Please keep the reviews coming!

…

Johanna

I know something bad is coming. Only one death in three days and people in the Capitol will be getting bored. The game makers are going to have to do something soon to keep people interested. Whatever it is, I'm sure it won't be good for the tributes. Spruce's leg has healed up nicely and he's limping, but he's still alive. I'm glad we had money to help him. Raiding the Career's camp was the smartest thing those two kids could have done in terms of getting sponsors. People are looking at them as gutsy underdogs. The kids have more than enough food with what they stole but they have to go out every day for water. Salvia hates leaving Spruce alone but he's been walking around since yesterday and he's decided to go with her today. She's trying to talk him out of it because she's worried about him falling but he's insisting.

"I'm going, and that's all there is too it ok?" he says firmly, grabbing an empty water canteen. "I'm tired of sitting around here inside this tree."

"But you're safe in the tree. You can't run and you can't fight if we run into anyone," Salvia argues.

"I can't fight them here either!" he points out.

"Fine," she huffs.

"Fine," he says.

They grab all four of their water containers and head for the stream near their hideout. It feeds into the swamp but its fresh water and it's pretty isolated. Both kids are carrying axes and Spruce is definitely hobbling. They get to the stream and he sits down on the ground and rubs his leg. "Walking funny makes my hip cramp up," he complains.

"I told you to stay back at the camp," Salvia tells him. He rolls his eyes and splashes water at her making her laugh. That's when I see it. There's a large, brown, rat-like animal crawling out of the swamp. It has huge teeth and is bigger than any normal rat should be. A muskrat, that's what it is. But still, it's huge! It's easily four feet long without the tail and a good two feet tall. Salvia and Spruce have their backs to it and it's almost silent.

"Turn around!" I scream at the monitors, "turn around!". But it's useless. The rat mutt is almost on them when Spruce hears it and turns and then it launches itself at him. He and Salvia both scream and the thing is biting him, trying to get a good hold on his body. Salvia pulls out her axe and swings at it, hitting it in the back making it scream. More must have been waiting in the bushes because when the first rat mutt screams two more come running towards Salvia.

"Run Salvia!" Spruce screams. She raises her axe to fight them but he yells again "Run!". She gives him an anguished look and runs making it to a tree with branches low enough to grab and pulls herself up. The things apparently can't climb and soon leave her there and go back to their wounded friend. Spruce has stopped screaming but the giant rat thing is still biting his throat, making sure he is dead. Spruce's cannon sounds and just like that the rat mutts turn and waddle back into the swamp. Unnatural bastards! They don't even eat their prey, they just kill it! Fuck! I scream and stand up throwing my chair down behind me. I kick the other one and scream again. I hate these games! Finnick comes running into my booth and sees the hovercraft taking Spruce out of the arena.

"Want to break some shit?" he asks.

"Yes!" I yell back at him.

"Well, voila," he says and pushes a cart full of drinking glasses into the booth. We hurl them at the walls until the cart is empty and I am sobbing. Broken glass is everywhere.

"The Avoxes are going to hate cleaning this up," I sniff.

"We could do it," he says.

"They won't let us, you know that. It would just get them in trouble," I tell him.

"Sorry Jo," he says.

"Me too," I say. The last thing I do before I leave the room to let the Avoxes clean up the mess is reach over and turn off Spruce's monitor. The light goes out leaving a dark, empty spot in the control panel. I'm sure there's a bigger dark empty spot in the hearts of his family.


	34. Chapter 34 Hoster

Hoster

Only seven kids left. I feel awful bad about that kid gettin killed by them rat things. I figured something was coming; the audience and the game makers must be gettin bored by now what with no blood for a few days. They gotta be itchin for a fight. Might get one too because the girl from District 1 is on the move now that she and District 4 have split up and she's gettin close to Hobb and Moira. They saw Tansy and Spruce last night in the sky so they know that it's down to just a few tributes left in the games. They've agreed to split up when there's five people left to play. Right now they're out gathering food but they're not findin much. I look up at the map and see that they're only about 100 yards from District 1. They're talking too and makin a heck of a ruckus, "Quiet ya'selves down!" I think. But of course, they don't. Too late. The girl's heard them and she's moving through the bushes, she's quiet too, like a cat. She's carrying an impressive array of knives on her body and I'm sure she knows exactly how to use em. Moira's standing a few feet away from Hobb holding up some berries. "Can we eat these?" she asks but she never gets her answer. She coughs once and blood runs down her chin and then she slumps to ground. _Boom! _Her cannon fires.

The second she fell Hobb had his knife out and his make shift lasso in his other hand. A knife flys by his head but misses by several feet. Girl's playin with him. "Come on out and fight! Stop hidin in the bushes!" Hobb yells in the direction that the knife came from. Shine lazily strolls into the clearing where he's standing, dropping her backpack so that it doesn't impede her during the inevitable fight to the death.

"Happy now 10?" she asks.

"Name's Hobb, and no, I ain't happy to see ya." Shine rolls her eyes.

"Let's just get this over with shall we?" she asks with a wicked glint in her eyes.

"Fine by me," Hobb answers and she runs at him knife at the ready. She throws one and he ducks and she grabs another one from inside her jacket. Then she's on him and aims a blow at his neck. His arm flies up preventing a fatal blow but a large gash opens up on his arm just below his shoulder. Shine jumps at him again knocking them both to the ground and Hobb uses his legs to launch her across the clearing. It knocks the wind out of her and gives him time to get his rope spinnin in the air. Shine looks like she's thinking about charging him again and that second of hesitation is all Hobb needs. Before she knows what's happened there's a rope around her and she's pulled to the ground. Hobb pulls the slipknot tight so that her arms are trapped and she's lying on her stomach. He walks over to her and puts his foot in the middle of her back. Shine's furious and struggling and calling Hobb all kinds of names. Hobb says nothing to her, just takes a deep breath, steeling himself for what he knows he has to do. He bends over and puts his knee in her back, removing his foot and grabs her by the hair. She's screaming now and trying to bite him but he ignores her and says. "Ya shouldn't have killed Moira," as he slits her throat. Blood flows onto the ground and Shine is choking and making a rasping sound for a minute and then nothing. _Boom! _Her cannon fires. Hobb just sits down next to her and puts his head in his hands trying to get a hold of himself. Kid ain't no killer. He is now though and he's gonna have to decide if he wants to live with that or find a way to die in the arena. Hell, I'm not sure which is better myself.


	35. Chapter 35 Blight

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games.

…..

Blight

Salvia's not dealing with Spruce's death too well. After the hovercraft took him away she went back to their hideout and curled up inside the tree and has just been laying there for two days. Johanna and I have sort of been at a loss but we decided to send her a treat, a little cinnamon nut cake that we have on special occasions back in District 7. We can't afford a big one so it's smaller than a large muffin, but maybe it will motivate her to want to come home and get her back on her feet.

The silver parachute drops down to the ground in front of her and she glances at it, her eyes flat and uncaring. She gets up on her knees and reaches for it, opening the silver wrapping and actually smiling a little when she sees the cake. She holds it for a minute, inhaling the scent of the cinnamon and then eats it in two bites. The taste of food must have awakened the hunger within her because she starts digging through the backpacks and comes up with some crackers and dried meat. I'm hoping that this will get her motivated to get up and move around a bit but she just sits back inside her hollow tree and closes her eyes. I wish that she could have seen the interview last night that Cesear Flickerman did with her family. They talked about how much they want her to come home and how worried they all are about the state she's in currently. Maybe that would get her up and going. Some mutt or another tribute's going to find her and she's going to be too weak to fight. Another hour or so passes and I notice that the girl from District 4 is getting pretty close to Salvia. She must be close enough for her to hear because Salvia jumps to her feet and grabs her axe and crouches in a defensive stance. Meranda walks through the bushes and freezes when she see's Salvia standing there, ready to launch an axe at her head. "Throw it!" I think. But she doesn't.

Meranda, who's armed with a bow and two large knives, just stands there, waiting for the blow. When it doesn't come she asks "You gonna throw that or not?" Salvia stares at her and finally lowers the axe.

"No," she says flatly.

"Why not?" Meranda queries.

"I, I just don't want to watch anyone else die. My district partner, Spruce, he, he…."Salvia's voice trails off.

"Yeah, I saw him in the sky. What happened to him?"

"These giant rat things, they came out of the swamp and, and, and, Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Salvia just starts screaming and clawing at her face.

"Hey, calm down!" Meranda says rushing to Salvia's side. "Calm down, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry he died, I'm so sorry that you had to see it."

"Why would you care?" Salvia yells at the other girl, "You're a Career, you're trained to kill people! That's all you do!"

Meranda presses her lips together and finally says "No, it's not all I do. Despite what you think we're people too, just kids trying to survive here like you." Salvia just glares.

"Hey, you look thirsty and tired, I have some berry juice that I made, it's good, do you want some?" Something sweet might make you feel better," Meranda says and offers a small canteen to Salvia.

"Don't take it," I think. But she does.

"Thanks," Salvia says to Meranda and takes a long drink. Then her eyes grow wide and she drops to the ground. _Boom! _Her cannon rings out in the stillness. Meranda takes back the Canteen and tucks Salvia's axe into her belt.

"Guess you shouldn't have trusted a Career," Meranda whispers. "After all, all we do is kill."

I watch the hovercraft come and lift Salvia out of the arena and I wonder if she really thought that a career would offer her something just to be nice? Or did she know that it was poisonous the whole time?


	36. Chapter 36 Finnick

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games. Thanks for all the reviews so far and please keep reviewing!

...

Finnick

I can't believe Meranda poisoned that girl! Seriously I wouldn't have pegged her as someone who would kill unless they were attacked outside the bloodbath. Although, that girl from 7, something wasn't right about her anymore, maybe she wanted to go. She could have killed Meranda by throwing that axe through her skull but she didn't. She waited, almost as if she was hoping Meranda would attack _her_. I can't sit in this booth anymore. What I really want is to be walking on the beach with my arm around Annie but I can't do that here. I can't put her in any more danger than I already have, and truthfully I know that I should tell her that she and I have to stay away from each other back home too so that she would always be safe, but I can't. She's my only comfort, a small piece of heaven that somehow got dropped into this world. People now say that there is no heaven, but when I look into her eyes I know that there is.

Annie is…there's just something different about her. Something other worldly. I don't know how to explain it. Even before her games when you looked in her eyes they weren't the eyes of a young girl, her eyes held something old, like wisdom but more than that. All I can tell you is that Annie's spirit is older than time itself. She has these dreams, not about the games but about other times and places. She says it feels like she's really there, like it's a memory, not a dream. She's dreamed about living in a really green place and celebrating harvest near a big circle of stones. She's dreamed about living in a small village where everyone was sick and dying and graves couldn't be dug fast enough. The disease was terrible and those who came down with it broke out in purple spots and oozing sores and died in agony. Once she dreamed that she lived in something called a castle, a huge stone house, bigger than anything we've ever seen where she served a queen. Once she was riding a train past a fenced in complex of some kind where the men and women were so skinny you could see every bone in their bodies and they were dying. There were huge furnaces in the background, she told me they were for burning people. She liked the castle dream best though. She said she felt happy there and got to wear beautiful dresses every day. I can buy her beautiful dresses to wear every day but I can only make her so happy. The games took away part of her and it's not something I can put back. If only it were as easy as building her a castle and buying her a room full of dresses.


	37. Chapter 37 Haymitch

Haymitch

I guess I could go home now that both of my tributes are dead but I'm going to stay and help Hoster keep watch over Hobb. Hell, who am I kidding? I really just don't want to go home because when I do I have to face the families of my dead tributes. There's always a stupid ceremony where I have to get off the train and shake their hands and tell them how sorry I am. They don't ever listen to what I have to say, they hate me. They assume that I was too drunk to help their kids. But that's not true. How do I stop a kid from running into the bloodbath when I told him not to? How do I stop a girl from getting killed by Capitol created silver fairies? None of that has anything to do with me.

I never know what to say either, "Hey, I'm really sorry you saw your kid die on national television and I brought them home in a box." Yeah, that goes over real well. The parents need someone to blame and they can't fight the Capitol so I'm a convenient scapegoat. Here's what I want to say. "Hey, people of District 12, why don't you start teaching your kids how to fight? I know you're tired and hungry but take thirty minutes and have your kid throw that axe you use to chop wood. Make a spear out of a branch and have them practice throwing it. Get your older ones to practice hand to hand combat with the younger ones, or with the neighbor's kids. Let them swing your miner's pickaxe at a tree. Show them how to make the explosives you use in the mines. Even if you have to draw them a picture in the dirt instead of showing them with real materials!" Kids aren't dumb. Sure, their brains are not as developed as they could be because none of them get enough to eat but they are not dumb. How about this? I could feed every family in the seam every night for the rest of my life but they won't let me. They don't like to owe people something. I'm not asking for anything in return, I just don't want kids to starve to death. It was the one thing I thought I would get out of winning, the ability to help people. But they don't want my help. They just want to be angry at me when their kid who has no muscle tone because they aren't getting enough to eat dies in the Hunger Games because he couldn't run fast enough to get away from a Career. It's so fucked up.

I do help some people though. No matter how drunk I am I've got it set up with the Mellarks at the bakery and the Robbs at the butcher shop and Derry's that run the vegetable stall to send up food every week to my old neighbors. My friend Daren Scott died in the games after I won. He had a little brother and sister, Alan and April. His father was getting older, and working in the mines wears on people. They were my second family, still are. They never come to Victor's Village but I go down to the seam and eat on holidays, like harvest festival. They're pretty old now and their daughter lives next door with her own family. I make sure her kids get enough to eat too. I'm not sure her husband entirely approves but he is grateful and says so when he sees me. Most people just avoid or ignore me. I've sent people to fix their roof when it started to leak; I make sure they have enough wood or coal to heat their houses, blankets to keep them warm, clothing to wear.

The best day I ever had was with the Scotts after Daren died. It was my birthday. I had seen Mrs. Scott in the square staring into the windows of the clothing shop and crying. It's not much of a clothing shop but it's all we have in District 12 and it serves us fine. It has kid's clothes, shoes, boots, miner's gear, dresses, dress clothes for men, anything we would need but it's all simple. Nothing fancy, only practical things and most people can't afford that. It was snowing that day and I noticed that Mrs. Scott's coat was looking awfully thin and her boots had holes in them. So, I waited outside the school for April and Alan and asked what was wrong with their mom. They didn't want to tell me but soon the whole story came out about how their dad had broken his leg in the mines and couldn't work and their mom was taking in wash and sewing but it wasn't much money and that they had outgrown their clothes and shoes and their mother was trying to cut down her own dresses to fit April and everyone needed boots and coats and nothing fit and how she had asked the merchants she did laundry for if they had any clothes that they didn't want or need but had come up with almost nothing. "Well, I'll tell you what," I told them, "today's my birthday so I want to celebrate it with your family ok? But instead of me getting presents I want to get presents for you all, how would that be?" The kids looked unsure but then they grinned. I wish their parents had asked me for help, but it's not the seam way. Everyone takes care of themselves.

"Ok!" they squealed. So our first stop was the clothing store. I put the two kids into the hands of one of the ladies working in the shop and told her to outfit them with five days worth of clothes, shoes, boots, coats and all. Then I got the owner of the shop, who keeps excellent records to find the sizes of Mr. and Mrs. Scott and we picked out new clothes for them too. Dresses, socks, pants, shirts, shoes, coats, hats, gloves, everything. I had the two kids put on one of their new outfits and the boots and coats and had everything else wrapped up. Wrapped up in District 12 means wrapped in brown paper and tied with hemp rope. So different from the shiny boxes and ribbons in the Capitol. The kids and I took the packages and went next door to the general store. While I was there I had several bolts of cloth boxed up along with some thread and lace and needles and buttons. I knew both kids would need new things again come summer. Mrs. Scott was a master seamstress and I had found her a sewing machine with a foot pedal in the hob last year. A big, old iron thing but a life saver in terms of the time it took to make or fix something. Then April, Alan, and I hit the bakery and picked out a cake and bought some bread. I let the kids pick out the cake and they chose one with blue icing and silver sprinkles. I also paid the baker's kid to carry all of our parcels in a cart to the Scott house. Our last two stops were the butcher's for a goose and the pharmacy for some morphling for Mr. Scott. Finally, we had everything piled into the cart and made our way to into the seam to the Scott house. On the way the baker's boy told me he decorated my cake himself. "How old are you?" I asked him.

"Eleven," he said. "My name's Shamus."

"Well, Shamus, you've got quite a talent there, that's a nice cake!"

"Thank you Mr. Abernathy," he said.

"Haymitch, call me Haymitch," I told him."My older brother makes the cakes with my dad and I decorate them."

"Ok, thank you Haymitch," he said and grinned.

When we got to the house we quietly unloaded everything onto the front porch and I gave that Mellark kid a few extra coins for pushing that cart through the snow. Then I the kids and I burst into the door yelling "Surprise!" Mrs. Scott screamed and threw the wooden spoon she was holding into the air and Mr. Scott just about fell off the sofa which made all of us laugh so hard we couldn't answer anyone's questions about what we were doing for a good five minutes. Finally, I managed to get out "It's my birthday so I brought presents, and dinner!" I said holding up the goose

"Haymitch, are you drunk?" Mrs. Scott asked.

"Of course!" I said. "Now let's put the goose in the oven and open presents!

"Boy, don't you know on your birthday you're supposed to _get_ presents? We ain't got no presents here, just me and my bum leg!" Mr. Scott said from the sofa with a twinkle in his eye.

"I have enough crap in my house, I don't want any presents from you old man!" I threw back at him. "But I do want to eat goose for my birthday with you people and instead of getting presents I want to give presents!"

"Boy, you don't have to give us presents, then we be owing you!" Mr. Scott said, only half joking.

"You don't owe me anything, we've all given enough. I promised Daren I would take care of you." Everyone's quiet for a minute then Mr. Scott says "Daren would want you off that bottle you know."

"Yeah," I say, staring at the floor, "but then I see him and Maysilee and a whole bunch of other kids in my dreams. It, it's bad," I almost whisper.

"Well, then at least give the man with a busted leg a drink boy!" Mr. Scott says, diffusing the tension. Mrs. Scott and April put the goose in a roasting pan with some onions and potatoes and stick it in the oven of the old iron cookstove. Funny how my house has an electric stove when houses in the seam have had to go back to using these ancient hunks of metal to cook with because there's never any electricity.

"Ready everybody?" I ask, barely able to contain myself. Mrs. Scott laughs and sits in a chair next to her husband.

"We're ready Haymitch," she says.

"Alright, come on kids! Let's bring this stuff in!" The kids squeal and follow me onto the front porch. The first thing I send in is the beautiful blue cake with the silver sprinkles and the bread from the baker. Everyone ooohhs and ahhs over the cake and April and Alan stack the food on the table in the kitchen. Next come the packages from the general store and Mrs. Scott is on the verge of tears when she sees the fabric. "Don't like it? I ask.

"Haymitch I love it!" she says and crosses the room to hug me.

"Now now, no hugs yet, the best is yet to come!"

"There's more?" Mr. Scott asks with big eyes. "Boy what did you do, buy out every shop in town?"

"Eh, more or less," I say with a shrug and a grin. The kids and I bring in the rest of the packages and I yell "More happy birthday to me!" Mr. Scott raises my bottle that he's still holding in a toast.

"Happy birthday to Haymitch!" he says laughing. I think he's had more than one drink out of that bottle now.

Everyone gets their own package wrapped in brown paper and I go around the room and quickly cut the strings holding the packages together. When the Scotts see all the clothing Mrs. Scott bursts into tears and I can see them welling up in Old Man Scotts eyes as well. "Haymitch, how did you know we needed this?" asks Mrs. Scott.

"I saw you looking in the shop window today so I waited for your kids after school and got the story out of them." She looks as the two kids with mock disapproval. They just grin.

"I just can't believe all this…"her voice trails off and she gestures at the piles around the room.

"Thank you son, this means more than you'll ever know," Mr. Scott says with misty eyes.

"Hey, it's the best birthday present I could get!" I tell him. "The only thing better would be if I brought…"

"Ain't your fault he ain't here boy, we don't blame you," Mr. Scott says gruffly.

"Yeah, I know," I whisper and then somehow manage a smile and tell Mrs. Scott to go put on one of her new dresses for dinner because we're celebrating. For the rest of the night we ate goose and bread and cake and laughed together. Mr. Scott dozed off at some point from the booze and the morphling and we all laughed at his snoring. It was the best birthday I ever had. The only good thing I ever got out of being a victor. Sure beats bringing home two dead kids in wooden boxes.


	38. Chapter 38 Hoster

Disclaimer: I still do not own The Hunge Games. Please read and review! Please!

Hoster

Finnick and Mags and I are exhausted but we're glued to the monitors in the common room. We're the only ones with tributes left alive but a lot us is still here. Haymitch is snorin on one of the couches towards the back of the room, he was on duty for me last night and Chaff's sitting in a recliner drinking and watching the monitors too. Johanna is slaughtering Gloss in some drinking game they've made up to go with playing darts. Gloss is wasted. Seeder went home yesterday and so did Cecelia and Woof. Sonia, Beal, Dahla and Gord went home days ago. Lyme, Enobaria, and Brutus are still here. Brutus is dozing in a huge chair with a footrest near Chaff and Enobaria and Lyme are arm wrestling at the table in the back of the room. Lyme must be winning because Enobaria just threatened to bit her and Lyme said if she did that she'd pound Enobaria's face to a pulp. Friendship must be a little different in District 2 because I'm pretty sure they was right serious. Annie and Cashmere are the only ones missing, most likely holing up in their apartments upstairs. Too lonely up there for everyone else, that's why there all down here. Some like Johanna and Gloss are here at the President's request. We all know what that means. It's why Johanna gets angrier every day and Gloss gets drunker. Nobody likes layin on their backs for some capitol freak. We all done been there, well, maybe except Haymitch, but they killed off his family for that. Everybody else is here because going home means facing the families of the dead tributes as well as the rest of the District. Better to stay here with friends.

"Hoster, stop daydreaming and look!" Finnick calls out tossing a pillow at me. I whip my eyes back up to the screen and that Hobb and Meranda are facing off in a clearing. They must be somewhere near the river that cuts through the western part of the arena because I can hear water nearby. Hobb can swim, but he's only ever swum in a pond near his house. Don't know that he'd be surviving in no river. Meranda must have decided that Hobb's too big to take on or she's up to something because she turns around and takes off and Hobb goes running after her. Meranda's got quite a few weapons and Hobb has 3 knives. One from the cornucopia, one from Moira, and one from Shine. His vine lasso is rolled up and tied to his belt.

The sound of the water gets louder and finally Meranda stops running. Hobb stops too, looking at her warily. "What'cha doin 4?" he yells to her. She doesn't answer; she just backs up a few steps. Hobb steps forward and I'm just waitin for that girl to throw an axe or a knife at him but she don't. Course she killed that girl from 7 sneaky like with poison. "Did you kill District 7?" Hobb yells.

"Yeah," Meranda calls back. "I poisoned her, got a problem with that?"

"Course I do!" Hobb answers.

"Did you kill Shine, District 1?" Meranda asks.

"Sure did, she killed my ally," says Hobb. Meranda keeps backing up and Hobb keeps moving forward.

"You gonna kill me now 10?" she yells. "Because I've killed at least four people and then when my ally lost her hand I couldn't save her! She died because I couldn't fucking save her!" Meranda's cracking, she's losing it. Happens every year, some kid's mind just can't take it anymore and just snaps. The worst was the year that kid went crazy and started eating people after he killed them. Titus was his name, crazy bastard. Game makers killed him off with a landslide. One year a kid went insane after watching the Careers kill his district partner and he climbed up the cornucopia during the night and just stood on top of it screaming bloody murder. Naturally that's where the Careers had set up camp and they didn't know what to make of it. Finally the boy from District 2 threw a spear through him to shut him up. I've seen some crazy shit happen over the years.

Meranda just starts laughing maniacally and Hobb just looks at her like she's a bomb about to go off. "You ok over there 4?" Is he really askin that? Cause most any other tribute would have killed her by now. Not this kid though, he's genuinely a nice kid who cares about people.

"Am I ok?" Meranda just keeps laughing. "No I'm not fucking okay! I'm never going to be ok again!" she screams. "Every time I go to sleep I see their faces, that boy from 3, Tansy, the girl from 7 and some other kid I killed in the bloodbath, I don't even know his name or where he was from! But I shot him because he was going to stab Naylor! He's dead and so is Naylor and Tansy and Shine and Levi and fucking everybody else I knew here! Oh, except you and that kid from my district, Dav. He's a slick little bastard, you'd better watch out for him. He had some brilliant plan coming in here and he's still alive so it must have worked so far!" Meranda screams. "But I'm done! I don't want this; I don't want to see all those kids everywhere I go and in my dreams at night. So come on 10, come and get me!" she yells at Hobb and takes off running again. Hobb looks confused but he runs after her, unsure of what to do. Is her district partner waiting in the woods to kill him if he follows her? If he stays? He keeps running and unties the lasso from his belt as he does. Meranda's about ten feet in front of him and the sound of water is gettin louder all the time. All of a sudden the girl's gone, just like that, dropped right outta sight without a sound. I don't understand what happened at first because the trees are pretty thick and neither does Hobb but suddenly he stops running and instead inches forward. In front of him is a cliff where the river drops off and there's a huge waterfall. _Boom! _Meranda's cannon sounds through the arena. Maybe she was hoping Hobb would keep running and fall off too. I don't know. But she clearly meant to go over the edge because she didn't scream on the way down. You scream if you don't want to die.


	39. Chapter 39 Mags

Disclaimer: I do not now and never will own The Hunger Games, I am not that awesome. Please keep reading!

...

Mags

I knew what Meranda was up to when she turned and ran from that boy instead of killing him. She'd found that waterfall this morning. She had just been wandering around after she poisoned the District 7 girl. I had thought she was making that canteen full of poisonous berry juice for herself but I guess that would have been too obvious to the audience. People who don't play by the rules tend to end up with dead families and obvious suicide isn't playing by the rules. The girl from 7 had given up anyway and maybe Meranda was offering her an easy way out, maybe it was a mercy kill. Doesn't matter a bit though killing is killing and turns a part of your soul black.

I killed out of mercy during my games; I killed a 14 year old boy. He'd been speared during the bloodbath but he wasn't dead. When the fighting was over the other Careers (although we weren't called that back then and we had a girl from 9 in our group) and I went around checking the bodies at the cornucopia to make sure they were dead and retrieve any weapons that we wanted from their corpses. The boy was the second body that I checked, only at the time he wasn't a body, he was still a boy. I looked at him and he looked at me and I just knelt there beside him for a minute. He had a number 8 on his sleeve so I knew what District he was from. He and his family probably worked in a textile factory, maybe they even made the clothes we were wearing. The boy smiled at me and whispered in a ragged voice "It's beautiful."

"What is?" I asked.

"The sky," he said and smiled. "The sky's not blue in 8."

"Oh," I said. "It's blue like this in 4."

"I'm Calvin," he told me.

"I'm Mags," I said, wondering how this boy could still be alive and aware enough to talk.

"Mags," he rasped.

"Yes?"

"I'm ready ok?" He smiled and closed his eyes.

"Ok," I answered and quickly slit his throat. He died with that little smile on his face. He had brown hair and blue eyes and a little scar on his forehead. His name was Calvin and he was from District 8. It's been over fifty years since he died, since I killed him, and I still remember his face like it was yesterday. I wonder if there's anybody else alive who remembers Calvin? He took a piece of my soul with him when he died; just like every other kid I killed during those games.

I guess I could have done what Meranda did and found some way to die but I didn't. I stayed alive, was sold by the Capitol, feted as a victor, and mentored countless children. I kept hoping every year that one of them would come home. I still do. I've brought home a few, Finnick included. I took him in when his family "disappeared" mysteriously. People either think Finnick is a monster or a playboy. Really, he's not either. He's a sweet kid, well, I guess he's a man now, who's in love with a mad girl and the games destroyed them both in different ways. I've tried over the past few years to put them back together but really, there's no way to bring light back into the dark parts of your soul. Finnick finds comfort in Annie and the piece of rope he carries around knotting and unknotting. The boy's never been able to keep still, always moving, always talking, except when he's here. Here he's quieter. Before the dark days they would have said he was something called "ADHD." Back then that's what they called kids who couldn't concentrate and moved too much. My mother told me that that was what they had said about my older brother in school. He was dead by then, lost to the war. She liked to talk about him though. My mind's wandering, oh well; it's what happens to old ladies who've seen too much in their lives. I just watched another kid I mentored die, one more thing to add to the list of horrors I've witnessed. I hope the Capitol doesn't bother Meranda's family. I don't think they will though, it's too to argue that she looked back at her pursuer at just the wrong moment and didn't realize that she was at the edge of the cliff. She turned her head at just the right second for that to be plausible. But I know the truth; she had decided that she couldn't live with the dark places inside of herself.


	40. Chapter 40 Finnick

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games just my own characters and ideas.

...

Finnick

We're down to the last two tributes Dav and Hobb. It's been pouring down rain for the past few hours and all of the streams in the arena have become brown fast flowing rivers. Hobb has been looking for Dav but Dav hasn't been far from his tree. These two better get it over with soon or the game makers are going to find some way to make it interesting for the audience. They love to try and drive the tributes together for a final fight. I check the monitor with the map and see that Hobb really isn't too far away. Within a few minutes he's in the grove where Dav is hiding. Dav sees Hobb, but Hobb doesn't see Dav. Dav laughs and jumps out of the tree on the path nearest him brandishing his knife and one of his home made spears.

"You wanna fight kid?" Hobb yells over the rain.

"Sure do!" Dav calls back.

"Come on then boy!" Hobb growls as he charges Dav, his large knife raised. Dav charges forward his spear in front of him and he drives it right through Hobb's shoulder. The impact knocks Hobb to the ground and he gets in a cut on one of Dav's calves on the way down. While Hobb is struggling to get up Dav goes running back to his tree, trying to pull the same trick he did on Rye, he wants Hobb to follow him and fall in those death pits he built. It looks like it might happen too. Both boys are having trouble staying upright from their injuries and the slick mud that makes up their fighting ground. Hobb screams and runs toward Dav but Dav is faster and he makes it back to his tree and Hobb slips and falls again, he's off balance because of the spear and he's in pain. Dav has gotten back up into the tree despite the cut on his calf and he's moving off to the side a little, trying to get Hobb to run towards that part of the tree so he'll fall in the pit. He reaches out to grab another branch to hold while he slides sideways and that's when it happens; his feet, which are slick with mud and blood slide out from under him. This coupled with the fact that the branches themselves are soaking wet is enough to make him lose his handhold as well. Everyone in the room gasps and that handsome, mischievous kid falls into his own trap. He's impaled on two spikes and isn't struggling. Hobb approaches cautiously and doesn't look like he's going down into the pit. But Dav's holding something out to him. Hobb edges over to Dav and takes something from his outstretched hand. It's Rye's necklace.

"District 11," he whispers. Then he says something else we can't hear. Hobb comes closer and opens Dav's pocket. He pulls out a small photo frame, no bigger than my little finger and hands it to Dav. "My family," he gurgles, smiling. _Boom!_ Dav's cannon, the last one of the games. He dies with that smile on his face and Hobb buttons the picture into his own pocket for safekeeping. In the rain I can't tell if Hobb is crying or if raindrops are running down his cheeks. Maybe a little bit of both.

He backs out of the pit as Claudius Templesmith's voice announces that he is the winner of this year's Hunger Games. The hovercraft comes and retrieves Dav's body and then a ladder descends for Hobb. He walks over to it and it lifts him out of the arena. Out of hell. Bad thing is, kid doesn't know he's just going from one hell to another.


	41. Chapter 41 Hoster

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games just my own characters and ideas.

...

Hoster

I catch up with Hobb as he's being wheeled into surgery to fix his shoulder. He looks up at me and says "Hoster, I made it, I'm going home."

"Yep, ya sure are kid," say and pat him on his good shoulder. Both of us are getting teary eyed and that's embarrassin. He holds his out to me "Take these," she says softly and gives me the District tokens that Dav had given him.

"I'll make sure these go to the families, ok son?"

"Ok…." he says and drifts off, feeling the effects of the anesthesia they just shot into his I.V. Poor boy, he thinks the battle's over. He doesn't know that there's a whole new type of battle he'll be fightin soon enough.


End file.
